I am happy to announce that we are starting a non-profit 401 C 3 that will be used to provide aid to uninsured musicians in the south, as well as to bring live music to children soldiers and others in hospitals throughout the south. It has been a dream of mine for ten years now. I myself have received so much help and aid over the past couple of years, I feel it is my life's work to "pay it forward." What we need is to raise the money to pay our start up costs and legal fees to get this all underway. Anyone who makes a donation of
any size will receive a thank you and will be listed on our website as a charter contributor.
TO DONATE CLICK HERE. For more information on the organization, read on...
MISSION STATEMENT
HEARTS OF THE SOUTH is an organization that brings together some of the finest musical talent from the South to assist fellow musicians (and their family members) who find themselves in need of hospitalization or surgery without benefit of insurance.
HEARTS OF THE SOUTH organizes concerts, both large and smaller scale, to raise money to assist. We also organize auctions, sporting, celebrity and art events to raise funds. We also seek help from other charitable organizations when appropriate.
Besides helping musicians, we have enacted our “Healing Through Music” program. With this program, we assemble small groups of talented musicians to visit hospitals and bring music to patients and residents of facilities such as St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital and Shriners Hospital for Children, along with The Fairwold School, The Angelus Day Care Facility, and various Military Hospitals to entertain the Wounded Warriors.
A few of our long term goals include the building of a Southern Music Hall of Fame and Museum that will channel funds back into the organization and therefore help more people; a series of compilation CDs by various artists to give as premiums during fund drives; an annual celebrity golf tournament; an annual HEARTS OF THE SOUTH Southern Rock Concert event; and more.
Our primary mission is “helping and healing through music.” It is more than just a job for us, it is our life long dream.
BEGINNINGS
HEARTS OF THE SOUTH was originally conceived in 2001. Well, the name and logo anyway. At the time I was owner and Publisher of GRITZ Magazine, a publication that celebrated Southern music. In the week following the 9/11 attacks, I felt an urgent need to assemble a compilation CD featuring all of the Southern Rock friends I had gotten to know, sell the CDs and hopefully help in raising money for the families of the World Trade Center victims. Ray Turknet designed a beautiful CD cover and logo, and we had an amazing group of songs donated to the project.
We had everything ready to go, and just as we were going to press with the CD we hit a snag. One of the artists started questioning every small detail of the project, and then informed us that unless we paid him we could not use his track. Sadly, his was our lead track. By the time we worked through all the details several months had passed and the whole project was shelved. I never quite got over that.
Now, ten years later, my dream has finally become a reality. Teaming up with life long friend (and fellow event coordinator) Tim Shook, we are launching HEARTS OF THE SOUTH as a non-profit organization in 2011. Our primary goal is to help others, especially uninsured Southern musicians who have fallen on hard times. While helping everyone who needs help is an impossible task at this point, we vow to help as many as possible, by way of benefit concerts, benefit art shows and functions and by connecting them with other charitable organizations who may assist.
We also plan to carry live music and other entertainment to those who are confined to the hospital, whether it be children at St. Judes or Wounded Warriors in the military hospital. And we vow to use all of our established celebrity connections to bring surprises and joy to those who need it most.
We hope you will join is in our mission to help others through the wondrous gift of music.
Our Sincere Thanks for Helping.
Michael Buffalo Smith, President
