Don’t let the headline fool you. This is not the glitzy, 24-hour, multi-million dollar supercar showdown at Le Mans, France. This is the 24 Hour Race of LeMons (i.e. the fruit) which is a lot more fun, cheap as hell and wears its heart on its sleeve because many of the cars are out there trying to raise money for charity. That’s us in No. 308 last year – when we weren’t repairing it.
Check out a cool video about the race after the jump and see some of the kids that we are trying to help out.
Dana Underwood is a bit of an inspiration to us all here at Area 3. When she’s not here at home singing to raise money for charity causes in the tsunami hit areas of Thailand, she’s in Thailand spending that money and her time to help others get back on their feet.
Dana has been in and out of Thailand since 2005 since a massive Christmas tsunami in December 2004 claimed more than 5,400 lives. Since then she’s been clearing rubbish, building houses, saving families and even pulling teeth. Really.
Her last project was to rebuild a house for a family she met there and we’re happy to say that with some help from us and others, and her charity gigging, she managed to raise funds and that house was completed. She recently went back to meet the family after a long time away and was delighted with the results, although it seems not all was rosy. On that visit she found her next project.
Plans are afoot to get our favourite marching band, the Hubbard High School Band, on the road this summer with visits planned to two colleges.
According to music teacher, Dave Stahlberg, it all comes down to cash availability but the plan runs something like this:
“With your support, I hope to visit two colleges, buy office furniture, finish out the year in repairs, and still have money for the band picnic and awards. First up is Vandercook College of Music, located on the campus of Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). They host BandFest where the band plays for a bunch of critics, then one of the college directors works with the band. We’d also like to do an exchange with Downers Grove South, where we both learn the same tune and the kids work on it and play it together. After all that, we would get a tour of VCM and IIT.
It’s good to give something back which is key reason we helped fund the final stages of the Genesis Rest house in Thailand. It set out to be a sanctuary of sorts for weary charity workers in Thailand, who were in need of some well-deserved R&R.
Since its completion last year we are happy to report that charity workers from many different organizations have taken some time out at Genesis Rest and here’s some of the feedback:
It’s not often that you get an immediate response to a call for help.
OK, it’s very rare.
But, we’re happy to report that the recent story on our aim to expose the talented teens in the Hubbard Street Band to the college experience got a rapid response.
When the Hubbard High School Band went to play at the Indy 500 race last year and then spent a day working and practising on college campus with the Butler University band, they never thought they’d get hooked on college. It was such an eye-opener that many of them have now set their sights on college after High School.
We thought it would be great if we could get our own Illinois universities on board to try and make this annual college trip a regular event.
To do that, we need to get them to work with us in order to give these talented teens a chance to see college at work.
Who would have thought one night in a college dorm could inspire a large group of teenage band members to consider upping their game and trying for college themselves? We didn’t.
Neither us here at Catalyst Exhibits nor the 52 members of the Hubbard High School Band saw it coming but we are delighted that it did.
The band is one of our favourite projects and we’ve been helping keep them in instruments over the past couple of years? Did you know a new tuba could burn a $5,000 hole in your pocket? Anyway, on their last field trip, which involved a performance that had them marching 4 miles around the Indy 500 track in the baking sun, the members also got spend a day working and practising on campus with the Butler University band. That night they crashed at the dorms.
When it comes to getting around large parts of Cameroon there’s no point waiting for taxis or buses because they don’t really exist. Which is why Area 3 was surprised to discover that the motorbike it provided to get teachers across rough terrain to help teach kids in remote villages was also proving a big hit with the locals.
As a taxi. Read the rest of this entry »
Most of us take being able to read for granted but for many young teenagers, reading is a challenge and some have been left far behind by their school friends.
Teacher, Debbie Vaille in Boulder, Colorado, has been helping them catch up with a unique reading programme, made possible by Catalyst Exhibits’ Area 3 charity work.
If faking how to read was a subject in school, then these kids were scoring straight ’A’s all of the time. Her special class of 12-14-year olds had been faking they could for years but were too embarrassed to be seen reading kids’ books. Read the rest of this entry »
Poverty-stricken Cameroon is a tough place for kids but now, for some at least, education can be literally heard revving its way to their village on a regular basis. Catalyst Exhibits Area 3 charity work took a direct approach to the thorny problem of how to educate a large number of children spread across an inhospitable landscape. The solution: a Galaxy YH 150-5 motorbike.
Biking teachers is not the most common image you’d conjure but, if the children couldn’t make it to the teacher, why not bring the teacher to the children?
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