Bay2Africa has begun...

So last time I wrote in this blog, I had mentioned that I had decided to start a charity, and explained the basic idea.. well now I got it started (please check out the website), and so that is the topic of this month's blog.

Basically I had this idea for a number of reasons... one is that I met a musician in Africa, and we started a "internet pen pal" relationship, but when I wanted to collaborate on music, it has proven very difficult, and one of the reasons is lack of music gear.  I know a lot about music gear, I've been in the industry either selling equipment or more recently working for a manufacturer of recording gear, for well over ten years, and I've actually had some experience shipping music gear to Kenya years ago, so I figured... why not?

Also, I really felt I had to do something that wasn't about, and wasn't for, myself...  while I get plenty of joy out of starting this, it is really about me learning that the best thing I could do for myself, is to give more to others.  I am not "well off" by any means, but spending money to start this, with the intention of helping a lot of people, makes me feel rich in many ways.  

My idea is a charity, that uses music to fuel the shipment of donated music gear, to different locations in Africa, where we feel we can help bring joy to a community.  We will be soliciting song donations from artists, where the song will be sold as a download for any amount of charitable contribution (even a penny), and this plus fundraisers will fund the shipments.  Then we will also have donation drives, where musicians, artists, producers, etc. donate a piece of music gear they no longer need.  I will be reaching out to some Bay Area music "celebrities" to really get the message out and show people this is a big thing and is going to change people's lives.

There's a lot more to say about this, but please check out the website, and contact me if you want to know more!

I attached a pic of our first mixtape, which will be released in November!