I work for a musical instrument manufacturer/distributor. I'm just a peon, instrument setup tech, but I could try to find out who to contact about getting some stuff. Can't promise that the corporate bean counters will want to do anything to contribute, but they'll probably want specifics as to what is wanted, where it's going to, etc., etc. I don't think that they'd pay much attention if I said, "Hey! Arlo wants lots of musical instrument type stuff to donate to musicians who were hurricane Katrina victims! What do ya got?"

I emailed the above suggestion to The Guthrie Center, but haven't gotten a response yet. Is there somebody I can discuss this with? You (whoever you are) can email me (Captain Zap) via the Group W site, seenin's how I'm on the Blunderite list. I would just need something a little less fuzzy than "We need stuff!"

Like I said, I can't promise anything, but I have had some success with getting them to donate an annual guitar to my hometown's volunteer fire department's folk festival (no longer held, unfortunately). Just that dealing with "the suits", ya never know what to expect! They could say, "Hey! That's a great idea!" or "It would be way too much paperwork!"

Sorry it took me so long to notice and post this, but I usually hang at the Group W forums.

Captain Zap

Hey Zap,

On the arlonet homepage, under the Dec. 18, 2005 message, there's a link...Guthrie Foundation. Click on that. On the page that opens, there's a tele. number and a link train2noATrisingson.com(change "AT" to "@" Try that. viel gluck

Thanks for the suggestion, Gerry. I sent an email to the addy on the website this past Wednesday (3/15/06) but haven't gotten a response yet.

Well, to paraphrase the late, great Rodney Dangerfield, "I don't get no response!" Left phone & email messages at two different listings for the Guthrie Center and haven't heard back from anyone. So, I'm assumin' that the Katrina musicians' aid thingy is a done deal, or you're no longer handling it or just not interested anymore. I did manage to get the name of a contact person in the corporation that I work for who is (or was) doing some Katrina relief stuff for musical organizations like orchestras & such but I don't know what, if anything, they may have been doing for club players, etc. So if anyone connected with the Guthrie Center is still interested, you can contact me via the email on the "Group W Home" website.

Months ago, I sent some photos of an old piano to Arlo. He told me to contact Annie. I called the FL office and had a nice chat with T-Shirt (Annie was home with 2 sick kids)... and she suggested that I email Annie. I did but never got a response. I still want to donate the piano! It was my dad's and I know he'd be thrilled to have his piano help someone down in NOLA.

The Guthrie Foundation is now auctioning off a nice geetar on Ebay. Look under acoustic Epiphones. Signed by the players on the Train 2NO Tour.

I think they'll welcome cash donations. I don't know about new instruments. I think with older musical instruments, condition and transportation are the key things...most of us don't have the kind of instruments a professional gigging musician is going to find useful. Old pianos are very expensive to move, and the humidity in NO will quickly make old wood swell and make a piano that has been happy in PA for most of it's life totally unusable. The cash that they would have to spend to move a piano would probably buy a couple of NEW keyboards.

In the "What We Need" announcement at the top of this forum Arlo said,"....Or maybe you work with or have connections to a company that manufactures entertainment products - Lighting, sound boards, microphones, wiring, theatrical equipment etc."

As I said, I work for a company that manufactures and/or distributes musical equipment: percussion instruments, instrument amplification, several different brands of guitars, bowed instruments, and tons of other musically related stuff. I reckon that falls into the above mentioned category. But if nobody on the other end responds or seems to be interested, then there's not much else I can do on this end.

Hey Capt.

Just so I know how to help here... who did you let know? I'm gonna kill kill kill.... or somethin'

adg

No need for homicide, Mr. G! I don't believe that I emailed any specific person. The first thing I did was go to The Guthrie Center web page
( http://www.guthriecenter.org/main.shtml ) and used the email link from there. It was awhile ago, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details but I wrote pretty much what I posted here to begin with. But I believe I left a phone message as well. (Although that might have been at Rising Son. My brain cells survived the '60's/'70's....sort of...so you'll have to excuse the lack of precise recall here.)

Then I saw Gerry's post here, took his suggestion and emailed Risingson.com When nothin' happened after a few weeks, I posted on here again. So, there ya go and here we are.


If I can contact somebody, either by email or phone, who can give me some info that I can approach the corporate bean counters with, that would be cool. They'd probably want to know detaily kinda stuff like who's gettin' stuff, where to ship it and all of that.

Type atchya later. Be well.
Captain Zap

There's lot's of changes going on that's for sure. Everyone at RSR and the Church is scrambling and things do get lost from time to time. We're working hard to make it all work. I forwarded your note to both. Hopefully someone will get back to you soon. Please lemme know what happens. The web info is woefully out of date and the sites are in need of major updating - That will be fixed very shortly.

adg

Sounds a tad extreme to me! Might I suggest that you chill chill chill instead? I mean Annie does run the office, and I would not like to see you get fired or nuthin'!

You got it Mr. G!

Capt'n Zap

Hey Mr. G,

Please, check your private messages on this site. I sent you a couple of ways for whoever wants to contact me to contact me in a more direct manner.

Capt. Zap

Nice offer, Captain Zap!