Great Community Give

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And welcome to iHeart Community, so public affair special focusing
on the biggest issues impacting you this week. I'm Chris
Carmichael and I'm here this morning with Lauren Jefferson. Lauren
is the director of Programs in Marketing for the Community
Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham. And for those of us
who may have heard of the foundation but really don't

(00:20):
understand what you do, tell us a little bit about
what your mission is.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Sure, so our tagline is making it easy to give
back to the community you love. So we work with nonprofits,
professional advisors, and donors to enhance philanthropic activities in the area.
I like to call us a philanthropic bank. So we
have donors who have funds with us and who are

(00:45):
interested in giving back to five oh one C three's
in the valley and beyond. So we enable that kind
of investment and sustained investment through endowments so that it's
not just a gift that's given once, but it keeps
on giving. That kind of planned, planned giving. We also

(01:06):
have a grant program for nonprofits that runs once a year,
and we have several funds that are called field of
interest funds, so they give moneies in particular areas, So
that's something that our nonprofits are involved in with us.
We have a very large scholarship program and are very
invested in helping future leaders. We do that through donors.

(01:28):
We also do that through a program called Virginia Ready,
which is for vocational education. And then of course we
have a few programs like Dolly Parton's Imagination Library and
Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership which helps to support professional development
for nonprofits. And then one of our largest programs is
the Great Community Give.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
And we've heard of that, Yes, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Well known in our community.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
That's been hugely successful here in our community. And our
eighth annual Great Community to Give is on Wednesday.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Yes, very excited.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
So one hundred and forty seven organizations are partnering up
with the Foundation for the Great Community to Give this
year and how are they benefiting from this huge day
of giving.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
So it's a lot of exposure of about the event itself.
We helped to run sort of a larger promotion and
then nonprofits of course are pulled in to radio stations
like you, to newspapers and television and just given an
opportunity to share more about their mission. It's a great

(02:35):
It's a great opportunity for them in some ways because
fundraising often doesn't have a deadline put to it. And
I did have one one nonprofit leader in the area
say that his board was a little bit reluctant to
talk about the mission and to be real salespeople and
ambassadors for it, and the great community give gave him
and them an opportunity to really go out and spread

(02:59):
the word about the impact that they were making in
the local community.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
So is the organization are they doing their own fundraising
or are you doing all the messaging for it? How
does that work?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
So what we do is provide administrative resources, So part
of my job is working on this event, and then
we purchase a subscription for the Giving Platform, which is
a secure way that people can give through credit cards.
It also provides for each nonprofit participant a landing page
that they can put on to it information about their mission,

(03:32):
their vision, some testimonials that you can add video and
so it's a and then that's where the secure giving
donation button is. So all of these organizations can use
that URL and share that through social media and through
various communications. So what I like to say is we
provide the publicity for great community give but then you

(03:55):
can kind of hop on board that and then promote
your organization as a participant in this opportunity and share
that with donors and not just we also are hoping,
you know, not just donors that are already giving, but
new donors. It's really a good reason to spread the
word beyond that donor base.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
And the organizations they have sort of a budget of
what they're hoping to raise on Wednesday. Some have a
smaller number, some of the organizations have a much larger
number and probably based on historically how much they've received
and giving in the past. But the community has come
out strong last year over two million dollars.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Oh my goodness, yes, two point two million last year,
which which was an historic high. And just we just
know per capita for giving versus dollars versus population, this
is just an extremely generous community.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
And we've got a couple of goals this year. I
think we do.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
We're really excited. We need about eight hundred thousand dollars
to meet the ten million dollar mark for cumulative total
over the eight years of the event. So we're hoping
to meet that if things are on track. We're thinking
ten am. It could be a little bit later in
the day, but on the way to the two million

(05:14):
dollar goal.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
And I'm gonna be really excited when we get to
announce that we hit that total of two million dollars.
Do you have some examples of how that money gets
distributed to the organizations to participate. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
So the one really neat thing about this event is
the website. That is the main tool. You can go
on and search for an organization that you're interested in
by name, or you can actually search by fields of
things that you're interested in supporting.

Speaker 1 (05:39):
Before we do that. The website is great community give
dot org. Correct, So as you're listening to this, maybe
hop on the website and you can follow along and
you can find these organizations as we talk about them.
That's great community give dot org.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
And on the website you can you can look at
these landing pages for these different organizations and they will
tell you exactly what they're fundraising for. And there's some
really exciting work going on. That's the other thing that's
really neat about this is an opportunity to learn what's
happening in our community. So just to give you a
few examples the Children's Clothes Closet. Last year they raised
seventy seven hundred dollars which helped serve seventeen hundred children.

(06:17):
They are buying gently used clothing, coats, baby strollers, and
car seats. Are also looking for donations of those items.
There is a park. Interestingly, the Church of the Incarnation
downtown Harrisonburg is fundraising to transform a parking lot into
a community green space, so they're asking for specific help

(06:38):
with that. The Northeast Neighborhood Association is raising funds to
develop the Broad Street Mennonite Church into a daycare center,
which is really needed in that community.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
And then.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Friendly City Florals is a new organization. They take gently use,
locally grown donated flowers. Lots of different ways they can
get these flowers, but they want to purchase a what's
called a bloom bar for one thousand dollars and it's
a place where the flowers can be kept and people
can can come and pick them out and put them

(07:12):
into different projects. So just like there's just a huge
variety of opportunities to look around and see if there's
an organization you want to support and something that you
can contribute even you know, an inkind donation besides the
financial donation that you might want to make.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
And again, all of that is listed on the website
at Great Community givet org. The event is coming up
on Wednesday, starts at six am and runs until eight am.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
We'll be there at five point thirty to get it
kicked off all day long. Come down and visit us
that we'd love to have visitors.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Well, we're going to iHeartRadio is going to have our
stations there all day on Wednesday, and so you can
come down and find out more information about how you
can help local nonprofits. You can see the radio stations,
get your phone out and go to Great Community to
give right there on location. You can make that donation
and watch the tope go up throughout the day. And
it's gonna be a fun day for a really great cause.

Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, it's gonna be great. We also have Smiley's ice
Cream will be there from one o'clock on giving away
free ice cream. So we'd love for you to participate
in an event somehow with a donation and then have
a scoop of ice cream too.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Sounds great, look forward to it again. If you want
more information, you go to Great Community Give dot org.
You can check the website right now for information. Lauren Jefferson,
director of Programs and Marketing with the Community Foundation, it's
great to talk to you this morning. Now, I want
to talk with a few of the organizations that are
going to benefit from the Great Community Give on Wednesday,
and I want to start off with Blue Ridge Legal Services.

(08:42):
Kathy Bangwell Marsh is the resource development specialist and Kathy
and I have known each other for a long time. Kathy,
it's good. Good to have you here on iHeart Communities
to talk about the Great Community Give on Wednesday. Tell
us a little bit about Blue Ridge Legal Services. What
do you do, who do you help and how will
the funds raised on Wednesday benefit those people that.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
You well, I think if you've ever watched a police show,
you know the phrase you have the right to remain silent.
You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot
afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you. It's
a good thing, Chris, I was going to ask you
to recite them, Miranda law. I didn't know if you
would know it or not, but that's the beginning of
that that whenever they arrest in one they say that,
but the truth is you're only appointed an attorney if

(09:21):
you can't afford one, and it's in a criminal offense case.
Most Appericans think that that applies to civil cases as well,
but it doesn't. So if you have a civil legal
issue like filing a protective order from abuse of spouse,
fighting wrongful foreclosure or eviction, or maybe if you're like
an elderly person who's been scammed, you don't actually have
the right to an attorney, and without one, you're at

(09:44):
a pretty extreme disadvantage in the court. So what legal
aid does is it fills that gap. So Blue Ridge
Legal Services offers free legal services with you know, attorneys
in Harrisonburg and throughout the Shannandoah Valley to help low
inco people you know, kind of have equal footing in
court when they come against the civil legal issue. Our

(10:05):
vision is to eliminate that poverty based inequity in our
civil justice system by providing high quality legal advice and
representation to low income residents of the Shenandoah Valley and
Roanat Valley who couldn't get an attorney due to their poverty.
And we do that by hiring smart and educated attorneys

(10:25):
to help people. We close about twenty five hundred dollars
twenty five hundred cases a year. We close about twenty
five hundred cases a year, and the service we provide
is legal assistance. So the more money we raise, the
more attorneys we can hire, and the more people we
can help. It's really important to participate in things like
the Great Community Give because it allows people to see
what we do and help achieve that kind of American

(10:49):
ideal of justice.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
The people that you help, is there some sort of
background check to see if they qualify from you know,
from their financial status, or can anybody walk in and
ask for help?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Anyone can walk in and ask for help, but there
is an application process. There are a lot of things
we take into account, but general rule thumb is that
we help people who are at or below two hundred
percent of the poverty level. So we have attorneys that
have passed the bar that specialize in things like elder law,
housing law, predatory lending, and we even have specialized domestic

(11:26):
violence attorneys. A lot of that is covered by grants
that we get from various sources, and those are a
little bit you know, they can be inconsistent, depending on administration.
So it's really important that we have individuals who are
willing to support us and kind of fill that gap

(11:47):
between funding if we need it. We also have an
incredible network of local attorneys that take cases on as
a you know, pro bono free of charge, and we
fuel we kind of funnel cases to them as needed.
We're really grateful to participate in the Great Community Give
and to be part of this community. It's wonderful to
work here because you really do see the impact that

(12:11):
winning a civil case can have on a family.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
So I know that the organizations that are participating in
the Great Community Give, a lot of them have some
pet projects they're hoping to raise enough money to be
able to, you know, install a new air conditioning system
in their building, or to do repairs on a bus
or something like that. The funds that you're hoping to
raise on Wednesday, are they going directly to paying for

(12:35):
expenses for hiring attorneys or do you have some sort
of project that this money is earmarked for.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
You know, I think the biggest thing that we try
to do is to help families, our neighbors that need
help get the help thing in a legal way. We
don't have a specific pet project. We have so many
people coming to us for help, and we don't have
the resources to help everyone that comes. We have to
turn away about half of the people to ask for
help because we just don't have enough attorneys to fill

(13:05):
that gap. So any funds that we get as we
increase our funding, any extra grants we get, we use
it to hire attorneys so that we can help as
many people as possible with their legal issues. Again, right now,
it's our resources only can help about fifty percent of
people that ask. So that's what all the funds will do.

(13:26):
They will go directly to attorneys to help people directly
with their legal issues.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
Well, I ask you, if you're listening right now and
you're thinking, you know, I would hate to be in
that situation. If you ever would find yourself in that situation,
maybe make a donation to the great community give and
earmark Blue Ridge Legal Services as an insurance policy for
your future as well. If as things are volatile right
now when it comes to employment, people being underemployed, and

(13:54):
you know it's a very litigious society out there, So
you're doing great work for people here in Harrisonburg and
Rocky Am County and throughout the Shenandoah Valley. Kathy Bagwell
Marsh is the resource development specialist with Blue Ridge Legal Services,
and we appreciate you join us this morning on iHeart Communities.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
Thank you so much, Chris. It's a pleasure to be here.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
So next, I want to talk with Aaron Bishop. Aaron
is the vice president of the board of Directors for
Build Our Park and Erin. It's great to talk to
you this morning here on iHeart Communities.

Speaker 4 (14:23):
Thank you for having me here, Chris. I really appreciate
the opportunity. Like you said, I am vice president of
the board of Directors of Build Our Park. I work
downtown at Matchbox Reality. I'm a professional event director. I'm
a JMU grad, and I've been a passionate supporter of
Harrisonburg downtown renaissance the entire time I've lived here in Harrisonburg.
So this opportunity really brings a lot of my interest

(14:46):
together all in one place.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
So tell us for those of us who haven't heard
of Build Our parker maybe we've heard of it, we
just don't understand what your organization is. Tell us a
little bit about Build Our Park. Tell us about what
the plans are and how you'll use the that are
raised with great community to give on Wednesday.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
Well Build Our Park is a one volunteer led nonprofit
organization and we are committed to creating a privately funded
public park in the heart of downtown Harrisonburg. And many
people have encountered the space that is aimed for future
development of the park. It's an open space that's located

(15:23):
behind the current City Hall building in downtown Harrisonburg. It's
a grassy space adjacent to the Turner Pavilion where people
go to the farmers market throughout the week, and it's
an area that's currently being used for a public free
concert series throughout the summer, the levett Ant Harrisenburg Music
Series sponsored by Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance. So people have been

(15:45):
coming together in this space not only recently, but over
many decades, formally and informally. And the opportunity that an
open space like that in the heart of a downtown
is unique. It's special. It's an opportunity that we really
as a community want to seize to preserve that space

(16:06):
for community connections and gatherings. It's a place where we
can be outside and breathe and find joy and come together.
So that's where the park's located, and the plans have
been in the works for I think going on just
a bit over fifteen years, and that really shows the
incredible patience and dedication of our community where working with

(16:28):
city government and private fundraisers all coming together, are working
together with a vision and a dream that we can
get behind and see come to fruition very soon.

Speaker 5 (16:43):
Now.

Speaker 4 (16:43):
In September of twenty twenty four, we presented conceptual plans
to City Council and those plans were approved the following month.
The agreement that would define how the funds would be
raised and formally handed off to the city and trigger
the future construction and development phase of the park that
was defined and in December we executed that agreement. So

(17:05):
now really the thing standing between our community and that
park is the fundraising component. So the opportunity to again
be a part of the great community give right now
during what I consider our quiet phase of the upcoming
capital campaign is very exciting. We are welcoming through that
give you know, a way to connect with new individuals,

(17:28):
new supporters, to put this project out there during this
exciting day of giving. It's a way that our long
term supporters can continue to share their support through an
annual gift, and it's a way to challenge the community
with the fundraising need that we have on our horizon.
So where we typically take in gifts of fifteen twenty

(17:52):
five fifty dollars during a Great Community Give, this year
we've teased those opportunities higher and we've alluded to some
of the larger gifts that build our park will be
recruiting in the in the coming months, and so people
who are looking to make legacy contributions, who want their
lasting impact here in the community, those opportunities do exist,

(18:16):
and you know, Great Community Give might be an opportunity
where people can reach out about them, if not make
them on that day. But we look forward to sharing
the fruits of this phase with the community in just
a few months when we announce some major gifts and
show everyone where we are with that capital campaign foundation.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
So in your planning, when do you think the park
will actually be completed and available for use.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Well, we'll be in this phase of fundraising through we
anticipate twenty twenty six. Though, to be honest, if anyone
out there is listening and they want to make this,
you know, a huge splash this year. You know, we
could fund that park. I know there are businesses, organizations
and individuals who really have been waiting for the assurance
of our approved conceptual plans and this agreement with the city.

(19:05):
So you know, if someone out there here's this today
and is so inspired, we really could hand those funds
over to the city and immediately trigger some contractual obligations
that we'll see the park development begin. And that's exciting.
So realistically, we have planned on fundraising through twenty twenty
six and that with those funds handed off to the city,

(19:27):
the development of the construction phase plans would start to
move forward and we could see the development of the
park completed by the fall of twenty twenty seven or
into the new year of twenty twenty eight. So this
really is a great thing that's within reach and on
the horizon for our community.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
Well, you mentioned that that area has been used over
the last couple of decades for public events. I have
been there for many of those, and I'm excited. I
looked at the pictures on your website, really excited to
see this all come to fruition and as we continue
to bring people back into downtown Harrisonburg. Our and Bishop,
vice president of the Board of the Directors for build
our Park. I appreciate you spend us some time this

(20:04):
morning on iHeart Communities.

Speaker 4 (20:06):
Thank you, Chris. I really am excited to be a
part of the Great Community Give this year. It's so
exciting for our community and that it's not exclusive to
anyone organization. And I look forward to seeing what this
community can do. And I look forward to seeing you
in the future park in downtown Harrisonburg one day soon.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
You're listening to iHeart Communities and this week we are
talking about the Great Community Give for Harrisonburg and Rockingham,
which is happening on Wednesday, and we're joined by mist Newman,
executive director of Voice. All Right, for those of us
who don't know Voice, can you bring us up to speed.
What does your organization do, who do you help and
the money that's raised on Wednesday during the Great Community Give,

(20:45):
where does that go?

Speaker 5 (20:46):
So Voice is a local nonprofit and we would say
our goal is to marry the arts with the art
of giving back. So we were founded in two thousand
and eight, so we're pretty close to getting to celebrate
twenty years in the community. Which is exciting. But what
we do is we put on two benefit concerts annually,
one in June and one in December, where one hundred

(21:09):
percent of our concert proceeds go back to the community
to benefit another local nonprofit. So most recently, our December
concert was benefiting Scholars Latino Initiative, and our June concert
that's coming up is going to be benefiting Friendly City
Safe Space. So local nonprofits can submit a brief application
to be selected as the beneficiary, and they're selected simply

(21:31):
by a majority vote of our current membership, and then
we pick the two for the next year. We build
our concert.

Speaker 4 (21:38):
Around that.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
Sometimes we're able to engage our beneficiary in the concert.
So for instance, a few years ago we had the
beneficiary was Second Home, and so we actually took a
couple of our songs and we made sure that they
were ones that the kids could join in on, and
the kids actually came on stage with us and performed
for like two of the songs in the concert, and
then obviously one hundred percent of the proceeds still went

(22:00):
to Second Home to make sure they could provide their
services to families here in the community. So sometimes we're
able to make that magic happen where it's way more integrated.
And sometimes it's perhaps like it's a benefit concert in
the theme doesn't really relate to the organization, or they
can't really engage, or maybe they're like, we don't sing,
we don't want to engage, and that's okay too, But

(22:21):
we have a different theme for our concert each time,
and so that way we're able to select new music.
And then that beneficiary really they come and talk to
our membership about what are the services and needs that
they meet in the local community. So it's a way
for them to broaden their scope of people who understand

(22:42):
the services they provide. And then we ask them to
do the same thing during the concerts. So they come
to the concerts and they receive all of the donations,
but also during intermission they're able to share with those
audiences about the services they provide. So perhaps if maybe
someone is really a friend, a voice singer, and so
that's why they came to our December concert. But in

(23:04):
the meantime, they might have known a ton about scholars
Latino Initiative, but they might not have and so that
was a way for them to learn about it. And
then the same is true for us. Scholar's Latino Initiative
is going to bring all of the people who love
the work that they're doing and support them, and they're
going to be in the audience and so then they
get to learn a little bit about us by being
audience members at our benefit concert. So yeah, so I

(23:25):
think it's really it's a beautiful thing that makes sure
we try to keep things local. It really is pretty
low stakes for the beneficiary. They mostly just market for
us and you know, bolster enthusiasm and get to share
what they do, and then they really just get to
be the recipient of concert funds. And then we've also
tried to start embedding in the last couple of years
if we can to do like one service project with them,

(23:47):
if that works out, so that we can kind of
get to know more about their mission and educate ourselves.
And I hope that that helps our members feel even
more motivated to like understand what they're putting in weekly
hears for and memorizing music and learning a little bit
of choreo that they kind of feel, you know, connected
to that organization for that season.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
You've mentioned we a lot as you've described your organization.
It's you're a chorus, a choir. What's the right way
to describe the singers.

Speaker 5 (24:21):
Yeah, I would say the closest thing is a choir,
but we're the thing that's beautiful is that we don't
have anyone's style of music. We can do anything from
Broadway or show tunes, or classical or jazz or really
choral pieces. And I think that's one of the things
that drew me to the organization was sometimes when you
join certain musical ensembles, they have one style that they

(24:41):
really like, Like for instance, like I was in a barbershop,
women's barbershop in Charlottesville for years, and so that was
the style of music we did consistently, and I loved
it and I learned a lot. But like in our
Voice concerts, we actually have like a barbershop piece that
will be in our concert this coming June. But then
we also have songs from a musical song that are
pop songs, songs that were written for choirs. And so

(25:05):
you can be thirteen or older, and older could be
like ninety nine, like so we have right now currently
we have someone who is thirteen, and we have some
people I would I would guess I don't know our ages,
but like our older members are retired and have been
retired for years, so you don't have to read music
to join the organization. You just have to have a
passion and a commitment to say, like I'm going to

(25:26):
rehearse consistently, I'm going to learn the music. We make
tracks on a Google drive so people can be listening
to them because like I don't play piano, that's okay,
you know, you can still be a part of it.
So if you can make the commitment and you love
the community and you love music. I think one of
the other spaces that we really fill as voice is
you know, once you're done with high school or college,

(25:46):
if you're not maybe a part of a faith community,
there's limited spaces that you can actually sing and you know,
collectively with people. And music to me is such a
healing a healing piece and it was just like a
part of my identity, like you know, case college, like
I was in every musical thing you could be in show,
a choir, our musicals, ensembles, and so this still gives
me an outlet to sing, to meet new people, and

(26:09):
to do it for a purpose that's really meaningful.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
How do we become a member of the ensemble. Is
there an application? Do I have to do some sort
of audition or you know, I just need to know
somebody and show up.

Speaker 5 (26:23):
Yes, look to follow us on social media, be glad
for you, but no, really honestly, you commit for a
season at a time, and so we do what we
call all calls, which are basically info sessions. So we
do an all call, say like the last Sunday in January,
because our rehearsals are on Sunday evenings, so we do
the all call during rehearsal time. Rehearsals are five thirty
to eight on Sunday evenings, so we do an all call,

(26:44):
which is an info session. We allow you to come
to the first three rehearsals without making a commitment, so
you can kind of get a feel for it, like
is it what you thought it would be, does it
fit your life right now? And then you pay your dues.
Dues are basically to cover the cost of the music
that we're using. And then you come rehearsal you know,
weekly until the concert. And so, like I said, you

(27:04):
don't have to read music, you just have to pay
some small dues. You have to show up and commit
but it's it's really like we do audition for small
groups or solos like so if we're going to highlight
some people, we want to put our best foot forward.
But even if you're someone who's like, well I just
sing melody and I sing it in my octave, great,
we'll find advice for you, like that's not a problem.

(27:25):
And so and we also, you know, we have a
live four piece band usually that accompanies us, and so
sometimes we're looking for, you know, a pianist, a bassist,
you know, electric guitar, drummer or something like that, someone
who runs sounds. So if you're just someone who loves
the music scene and you want to give back, it's
likely we could find a space for you.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
We're talking with Misting Newman. She's the executive director of Voice,
and we've been talking about, you know, what your organization does,
but there's expense to it, and I'm sure in addition
to the dues, you need to raise funds for rental
of a haul or something like that. This is the
great community to give on Wednesday is a great way

(28:02):
to help raise some of those funds. Tell me how
that money will get spent and why someone should donate
to voice yes.

Speaker 5 (28:08):
Exactly, so in you know, to say true to our mission,
we want to make sure that the benefit concert one
hundred percent of those proceeds can go to the beneficiary.
So we do our own fundraising to for our operating costs.
So venues are usually around twenty five hundred dollars a
concert and music is way more than like what we
charge our members. But we try to like do fundraisers

(28:30):
on our own to you know, supplement that so that
cost doesn't prohibit people from joining us. So certainly the
great community give music venue. We've we've been trying to
kind of look for more of our own sound system
because a lot of times that's one of the barriers
for a venue is if it doesn't have a sound
system and we don't have our own, or we also
need kind of like show choir risers, I guess you
would say, because we have a group of about thirty

(28:52):
five ish right now that we've been having for the
last couple of seasons, and so in order for everyone
to be able to be seen and to be heard,
you know, we're trying to do so right now, we've
had partnerships where we are borrowing those from local high schools,
but they're using them less and less, and so I
think they're going to be at the point where they're
not going to be replacing them more and more. So,
like we could use this to buy our own risers.
You know, we have a storage unit because we don't

(29:13):
have a facility. We're one hundred percent volunteer run and
we rehearse in the basement of a faith community that's
letting us do that. And they've given us a closet
for like everyday things, but certainly, like when you're putting
on a whole concert, you need more than what just
fits in that closet. So that's what we do it for.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
The Great Community Give is happening Wednesday, six thirty am
to eight pm. You go to Great Community give dot
org and then click on the Voice page so that
you can donate to Voice on Wednesday. We love the
work that you're doing. I love that you're taking music
and helping back the community and mixing it all together.
I really appreciate the work you're doing here in our community.

(29:51):
Misty Newman, the executive director of Voice, appreciate your time
this morning here on iHeart Communities. Thank you, and that'll
do it. For another edition of iHeart Communities from iHeartRadio
I mean