Vote for Me!

On October 20, 2017 at the annual Party Like a Rockstar event, I will put on a racey costume and apply more hair gel than you thought a human head could hold, then take the stage to perform Proud Mary (a la Tina Turner) with the band E3. So I get to check off another item on my bucket list - singing with a REAL band. Okay, so I have actually sung with a band before, but certainly not dressed like this, and certainly not jiving on a stage like Tina Turner. This will be a little outside of my comfort zone, in spite of the fact that my comfort zone is much wider than the traditional comfort zone. So I certainly need your support but, more importantly, the Music Resource Center needs your support.

If this picture made you gasp, imagine what the live performance will do...

If the Music Resource Center had been around when I was kid I might not have been a teenage degenerate. Maybe I wouldn't have hung out in the St. Anne's lounge napping, smoking and concocting reasons why my term paper wasn't going to be handed in on time. Maybe I wouldn't have scored under 1000 the first time I took my SATs. Maybe I wouldn't have been rejected by UVA the first time I applied. Maybe I would have demanded RESPECT from my peers. 

Or maybe I would be boring. But maybe I would be PROUD of my teenage accomplishments. We will never know how the Music Resource Center might have changed my life, but we can affect the future for lots of young people here in Charlottesville. The fact that I know to use affect and not effect in that sentence shows that, in the end, it all turned out okay for me. But let's not take that chance with our young people today.

THE MUSIC RESOURCE CENTER

I copied the following from the letter I received from the Executive Director of the Music Resource Center, Alice Fox, because I couldn't possibly say it better:

Driven by the strong belief that fewer students would be in trouble after school if there were productive, high-interest activities in which to engage, the MRC opened its doors in 1995 with the mission statement to provide "a safe, diverse and creative community experience where teens build interpersonal and industry skills through the universal language of music.” The MRC offers students constant access to equipment and gear, supervision after school, and performance opportunities. In the past year, the members took advantage of 590 hours of recording time, over 300 hours of mixing recorded tracks, and over 1,300 hours of music lessons and dance rehearsals. At other facilities, these services would have cost at least $112,000 (or nearly $800 per member). While the MRC is able to provide services at a much lower cost, the annual funding per student to operate the MRC is still $550. However, the maximum we will charge a student is only $150, as every teen who walks through our doors receives a scholarship of some kind. Last year, 79% of our students paid $10 or less for their annual membership!

CAST YOUR VOTE

Click one of the buttons on this page or go to musicresourcecenter.org/vote/ and look for my picture, which is apparently going to be a HUGE poster at the Party Like a Rock Star event on Oct. 20th. Click VOTE NOW and then where it says, "Who are you voting for," scroll all the way to the end to pick ME. Enter your dollar amount knowing that, for every dollar you give to MRC, I will receive one vote. Then share this with your friends and ask them to do the same. THANKS!