And I’m going to tell you what the purpose is behind this fund-raiser/battle of the bands.  Brighten A Corner is the group that will benefit from this fund-raiser, and I’d like to tell you what they’re all about.  This is a long one, and at the end I’m going to ask you to give money and/or time to a charity for the good of our community, just want you to be prepared.

“Brighten A Corner” is the name of a local charity group.  Their goal is somewhat unique; they help out families who find themselves in overwhelming situations.  This usually takes the form of doing construction on homes or outdoor projects to make an unfortunate living situation more bearable for those affected.  One project in 2010 was for a wife and husband living in Nipomo.  The wife works for the county with battered women and the husband was diagnosed with ALS (commonly called Lou Gherig’s disease).

Effectively, the husband’s body is slowly shutting down as motor neurons die off.  He will slowly grow more and more immobile to the point of paralyzation, and eventually die.  There’s nothing anyone can do to take this couple out of this situation.  Brighten A Corner did what they could to help ease their burden though, by re-modeling their entire house, adding a wheelchair ramp and other improvements to make it more wheelchair-accessible, as well as improving the heating and insulation, giving them a completely new kitchen, new bathrooms, hardwood floors, the list of improvements goes on and on.  Pictures, being worth a thousand words, are included below.

Their kitchen used to look like this.

Now it looks like this :

One bathroom used to be this :

Now it’s this :

Craft Room Before :                                 Craft Room After :                          

Garage Before :

And After :

And the volunteers, work in progress :

Brighten a Corner does these kinds of projects about 3 to 4 times per year.  The ministry is managed by volunteers, the bulk of the work is performed by volunteers, and the money to pay for materials and contractors is donated or paid by the management themselves.  The estimated value of the projects they’ve performed so far is 750,000 dollars.  No one involved with Brighten a Corner makes a penny off of any of this work, their reward is helping the members of their community.

Money is an inevitable necessity in everything we do, and Brighten A Corner’s projects are no exception.  Make no mistake, these projects are expensive, and they rely entirely on donations. 

To that end, they’re hosting a bold fund-raiser Saturday the 28^th (That’s tomorrow) with a live music competition, a raffle, silent auction, food, all kinds of good stuff.  It cost’s 20 dollars per person and when you consider what their cause is all about, it’s really a small price to pay to help out these people who are genuinely doing good each and every day right here in our community, with no thought of reward. 

If you can’t come to the concert this Saturday then please consider going to their website anyway at www.brightenacorner.com and making a donation, or consider lending your time to work on a project in the future.  So few people really put the needs of others first in such a dramatic way as Brighten A Corner, I believe they deserve our support and I hope you feel the same.

If you can come, the concert is at 710 Aero Vista Drive by the airport in SLO.  It’s an all day event, from 12 to 8pm, coming at any time for any length would be such a great help to them… and I’m playing at 2:30.  Thanks for your time.

 -loren