By Tracy Dietlin
As Owner and Publisher of CV Weekly I am proud to announce that our benefit at The Date Shed this past Saturday night raised a total of $2910.00 between the door and raffle. After hard cost expenses and paying staff we have a net amount of $2112.00 to divide between our 2 charities: FIND Food Bank and Street Life Project. We consider this to be a big success.
CV Weekly also donated an additional $5900.00 of advertising in our paper and an additional $1000.00 out of pocket for other types of advertising that did not come out of the money collected, but was covered completely by CV Weekly as our personal donation towards promoting the event.
I am most excited at all of the publicity and awareness that we were able to raise about these two charities, which will continue to help them in the future.
“HUNGER is a community problem and organizations like CV Weekly are demonstrating there are ways for all of us to work together to solve a community-wide reality like hunger. We deeply appreciate the time and commitment the CV Weekly team has put forward in keeping this issue front-and-center during the holiday season and throughout the year,” said Lisa Houston, president and CEO of FIND Food Bank.
“People don’t always want to talk about hunger – it can be a very uncomfortable subject for a community to own and understand how to fight back, to make a difference, so that one in five of our neighbors ISN’T facing hunger on a regular basis. Organizations like CV Weekly help keep HUNGER in the community-wide conversation that is necessary for this fight to be won,” said Houston.
One of the highlights of the evening, aside from the music, was when Christian Jelmberg of Street Life Project brought several people on stage with him to talk about how the organization got them off the streets. It was very emotional and let the audience know exactly why we support this charity throughout the year.
I would like to thank Alex Haagen IV, owner of The Date Shed, for donating the venue so that we could give the door money to the charities. Kristen Reinhagen Ortiz, Manager of the Date Shed & Senior Talent Buyer at Empire Music Ventures, also deserves a big shout out for facilitating the partnership between Haagen and CV Weekly and for keeping things running smoothly throughout the evening.
I also want to thank all of the bands who came out and gave freely of their time and talent and put on an amazing show: Alfredo Hernandez (DJ Habanero), Burning Bettie, The Hellions, Blasting Echo, Waxy, War Drum, House of Broken Promises, Nick Oliveri’s Uncontrollable and John Garcia. What a kick-ass lineup.
I must thank my CV Weekly team and Date Shed staff for their hard work: Ming Bob, Robert Chance, Alaina Majiros, Denise Neil, Lisa Morgan, Edward Prichard III, Janet Newcomb, Linda Elizabeth, Noe Gutierrez, John Delaire, Phil Lacombe, and of course the amazing Chris Miller Imagine Imagery for taking rockstar photos. It takes a village and I am very proud of the music village we have here in the Coachella Valley.
Then there are all of our sponsors who we so appreciate donating prizes for the 3 raffle packages: Musician’s Outlet, Robin Hood Archery, Tg Tat, Debut Salon, Record Alley, Caroldean’s Resale Therapy, TKB Bakery, Cork & Fork, Hard Rock Hotel PS, DOS Salon, Eureka Burgers, CV Brewery, Skitzo Kitty, Blo Dry Bar, LQ Wine Shop, Richie’s Diner, Wolfgang Puck’s and La Quinta Cliffhouse and Jackalope Ranch in Indio for sponsoring the food for the VIP Lounge.
Thank you to everyone who came out to support the bands and the charities. CV Weekly wishes everyone the Happiest of Holidays!
Photos By Chris Miller/Imagine Imagery
