Music for MS

My name is Ben and I’m working with three music students at the Metropolitan State College of Denver to put together a charity concert to benefit the Rocky Mountain MS Center.

The three students, Joe, Luke and Yoli, are all touched by MS through their friends or family and decided they wanted to do something to help those with this disease that currently has no cure. … Yoli, who is a close friend of my sister Anna, approached Anna about asking me to help. She thought I would be a good partner because I too am touched by MS, my mother has it, and because of my background in political organizing.

After hearing from Yoli what she and her friends had in mind, I gladly agreed to help. We began to meet in the middle of April, 2007. We started by clearly stating our goal and identifying a partner. We quickly learned that in Denver, working with the Rocky Mountain MS Center was the best way to go. … We have raised over a thousand dollars to date. This initial money covers our cost of getting our facility, the King Center on the Metro State Campus.

While this was another exciting benchmark that we have reached, we are now focused on reaching our minimum goal of raising $5,000 to directly benefit the Rocky Mountain MS Center, though we are hopeful to reach $10,000.

To donate to this worthy cause, please send a check payable to:

Music for MS

and mail to:

Music for MS
15953 W. 66th CIR.
Arvada, CO, 80007

We are also seeking any sort of contribution people can make. We will be holding a small silent auction prior to the concert and are still looking for worthy items for people to bid on. We also would love to find someone who would be willing to donate some design to be implemented in our marketing, on our new blog, and maybe on t-shirts!

Some of the additional costs that we foresee are advertising and marketing as the concert approaches, and a dinner for all the musicians that are donating their time.

For more information and updates, check out Ben’s Music for MS blog or email him at Music.4.MS@gmail.com.

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Fri Jun 15

“ “When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” Jacob Riis

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Tue Jun 5

Progress

Luke and I met with the wonderful people at the Rocky Mountain MS Center this morning. We sat down with their Executive Director Karen Wenzel and with Kathryn Buckley, who has been our main contact to this point. They were so supportive, Karen offered to try and help get our appointed event space, the King Center, donated to us.

Kathryn has been wonderful from the start, and today provided us with some material to help us get organized as we begin to approach businesses to ask for support. They have also been kind enough to link to our blog on their website (see the lower left column, just below the football ad), and are even going to put an advertisement for us in their next newsletter! We discussed advertising and marketing strategies, and I believe the consensus is that things are looking good.

Luke is going to focus on getting the specifics lined up for the concert itself, and we are going to start putting up fliers and advertisements as soon as it’s all worked out. Feel free to get in touch if you want to help!

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Mon May 28

We're being written about!

Go check out Ryan’s Ramblings over on HoopsAddict.com, he’s given us a nice shout out on this beautiful Memorial Day. Thanks to Ryan, Jeff, and everyone at HoopsAddict.com!

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Wed May 23

Get in touch with us!

I accidentally had the wrong email posted up on our site, the proper email is Music.4.MS@gmail.com, if anyone had an email bounce back the one posted now works. Hope to hear from you soon!

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Tue May 22

Music for MS Charity Concert

My name is Ben and I’m working with three music students at the Metropolitan State College of Denver to put together a charity concert to benefit the Rocky Mountain MS Center.

The three students, Joe, Luke and Yoli, are all touched by MS through their friends or family and decided they wanted to do something to help those with this disease that currently has no cure. As they are all three music students, they decided to put on a concert. Yoli, who is a close friend of my sister Anna, approached Anna about asking me to help. She thought I would be a good partner because I too am touched by MS, my mother has it, and because of my background in political organizing.

After hearing from Yoli what she and her friends had in mind, I gladly agreed to help. We began to meet in the middle of April, 2007. We started by clearly stating our goal and identifying a partner. We quickly learned that in Denver, working with the Rocky Mountain MS Center was the best way to go. They were willing to put us under their 501 (c) (3) umbrella and even use their event insurance policy. With those administrative benchmarks cleared, Joe, Luke, Yoli and I were able to focus on fundraising - we have raised over a thousand dollars to date. This initial money covers our cost of getting our facility, the King Center on the Metro State Campus.

While this was another exciting benchmark that we have reached, we are now focused on reaching our minimum goal of raising $5,000 to directly benefit the Rocky Mountain MS Center, though we are hopeful to reach $10,000. To donate to this worthy cause, please send a check payable to:

Music for MS

and mail to:

Music for MS

15953 W. 66th CIR.Arvada, CO, 80007

I hope to have an online means of donation available soon, but for now we are strictly old school. We are also seeking any sort of contribution people can make. We will be holding a small silent auction prior to the concert and are still looking for worthy items for people to bid on. We also would love to find someone who would be willing to donate some design to be implemented in our marketing, on our new blog, and maybe on t-shirts!

Some of the additional costs that we foresee are advertising and marketing as the concert approaches, and a dinner for all the musicians that are donating their time. Nothing fancy, just a thank you to those people that will be putting in time rehearsing and working on the production. The concert is tentatively scheduled for Friday, September 28th or Saturday, September 29th of 2007.

I hope to be posting to this blog fairly regularly with updates on our progress and news about the event.

Stay tuned and get in touch to help fight MS!