Find Your Light Wish List Project In Progress!

Find Your Light has launched a "Help Fulfill a Wish" campaign on Google+ and they need your help to fulfill the wish lists for 16 charities that desperately need your support!! Be sure to sign up for Google+ and follow Find Your Light to receive all the updates!

Just make a donation HERE or text ART to 50555 to make a $10.00 donation to help fulfill the wish lists. Below are details (and videos) for the first three charities being highlighted and the list of others to come.

Sitar Arts Center (Washington DC)- Sitar Arts Center

Sitar Arts Center provides after-school, weekend and summer classes in the visual arts, music, drama, dance, digital arts and creative writing to over 700 students a year with over 80% of its school-aged students coming from low-income households.  

$50 purchases film for our photography students. 
$100 gives colorful glazes to the pottery class students. 
$150 brings new ballet uniforms to our dance students. 
$200 purchases a new musical instrument for our student jazz band.
$250 covers the cost of transportation for field trips to museums and performing arts venues. 
$300 buys software for the documentary film class.
$500 tunes musical instruments for the semester. 
$1,000 will subsidize the tuition for an entire 16 week semester of unlimited art classes. 
$2,500 provides art supplies for the mural arts class. 
$5,000 supports the costs of the summer musical.

 Musicopia (Philadelphia PA)- Musicopia 

Musicopia is a nonprofit organization that works with approximately 100 of the region's professional musicians to present a wealth of music education programs to low-income neighborhoods. Musicopia is also the leading advocate for restoring and improving in-school music instruction throughout the Greater Philadelphia area.

Items needed include:
- Instruments for band and brass instruments as well as half-sized and three-quarter-sized string instruments
- Instrument supplies such as rosin for bows, new strings, sets of drum sticks, etc.
- Visa or Staples gift cards to help offset the cost of purchasing and copying music and programs for Musicopia ensembles. Staples gift cards also help with copying of presentation and promotional flyers, and other marketing materials.

SKETCH (London, Ontario Canada)- Sketch 

Sketch creates opportunities for street involved and homeless people ages 15-29, to engage in the arts in a cross-discipline studio environment or in their community. Sketch provides
* space for self-expression and skill-building through self-directed time in studio or instructional workshops
* exhibition and sale of artwork
* connections to mentorship and apprenticeships in the arts industry
* support for education or a career in the arts
* jobs for participating youth facilitating workshops and programs

$2,500 supports one youth with 20 weeks of on-site training and employment--SKETCH hopes to employ 20 youth
$1000 purchases mosaic tiles and materials to furnish and create art finishes for our new accessible, gender-neutral restrooms
$500 will purchase a workbench for our screen-printing youth-lead social enterprise: PressXpress
$500 supports our community program and food purchases each month
$500 hires a special guest artist to teach youth a workshop series in sculpture, hip-hop, nutrition or silkscreening

The other charities to be highlighted are:

• Rosie's House
• Free Arts Minnesota
• Artists working in education
• Harmony Project
• Transit Arts
• Leading Note Foundation - Orkidstra
• Triple Threat Mentors
• MyStory
• Indianapolis childrens choir
• Opera for the young
• Cincinnati Symphony youth orchestra
• Sanctuary art center
• Raw art works
• Young playwrights theatre
• Arts corps

From Larry Allred, project leader for the Grobanite Toy Drive...

The Grobanite Toy Drive ends this week. Our total as of December 12th is over 4250 toys! This is wonderful!!!

If you'd still like to participate, just send your toys to the Marines and send us a toy log, or donate locally and let us know how many toys you've donated!

A big thanks to those who held Toy Drive Parties, including the SoCal Grobanites (138 toys), the Chicago Grobanites (212+ toys), the MD/PA/VA Area Grobanites (1261 toys), and the Norfolk VA Grobanites (344+ toys). Josh also went on a spending spree at Target to purchase toys for Toys for Tots (see photo below)!

A big donation through Find Your Light (for which $20 was donated for every "like" on the TFT Facebook Page up to $200,000) was a heavenly gift that will touch the hearts and lives of children across the country. It has inspired us all to give more and work harder to make the toy drive successful. Your efforts and donations, no matter how large or small, will also bring hope and smiles, and change lives for the better. Join with us now to do our best for the kids who really need us.

Best wishes in your efforts and your holiday season!

The Grobanite Toy Drive  

www.grobanitetoydrive.org
gfctoydrive@gmail.com

Norfolk VA Toys For Tots Party 

Norfolk VA M&G - Toys Collected

SoCal Grobanites M&G - Toys Collected

MD/VA/PA Area M&G - Toys Collected

Josh with Two Marines following his Target shopping trip for Toys for Tots

Click HERE to see Josh shopping for toys! 

 

The GFC "Thanks a Million" Celebration Event in NYC was attended by 190 people and was a very memorable event! Guest speakers included Bill Grein from Toys for Tots (who shared his thanks for the generous donations from Josh's fans), Stephanie Cate from the Batonga Foundation (who played a video with a Thank You from Angelique Kidjo) and Lindy Groban from the Find Your Light Foundation (who expressed her gratitude to all of us). Josh even made a surprise appearance to thank everyone! People then danced to the musical entertainment provided by Rob Rio. 

A HUGE thank you to all the volunteers and financial sponsors who helped make the event successful. Thanks especially to Sue Caviston, Kelly Miller-Craft, Karen Loden, Christian Allred (program designer), Stacey Ferguson (red carpet photographer), Terry McGuirk (decorations and nametags), Lily Yip, and DeDee Madsen.

The event raised $4000 for FYL through ads for the program, red carpet photos and other donations. The funds will be used to sponsor this year's XMAS party at Siyawela!  

To see Josh's speech, go HERE:  

To see Lindy's speech, go HERE:    

For anyone who would like to receive a program and/or the commemorative DVD which was shown at the event, just make a donation for $5 (for each one) plus $2 shipping on the GFC Donation page with a note about what it's for, and select "no button". Go HERE.

 

Thanks to the fans who have held recent Meet and Greet fundraisers to raise money for GFC/FYL! The MD/PA/VA Area M&G raised $1545, the SoCal M&G raised $180 (to be designated for Harmony Project), the UK M&G raised $190, the France M&G raised over $1000, and the Orlando M&G raised $800! Way to go, everyone!! We're well on our way to the next MILLION!

Note - If you'd like to have a M&G Fundraiser in your area, just write to gfc@grobanitesforcharity.org  and we'll send you all the fundraiser guidelines! You can also designate the funds for a specific FYL charity so be sure to check out the list of charities in this newsletter!

SoCal Grobanites (with their Josh Sox)

MD/PA/VA Area M&G

We found some holiday lapel pins in our inventory! If you'd like to order one for $12 with FREE shipping, just write toMaggie@grobanitesforcharity.org and she'll send you a PayPal invoice!