Press Release
St. Petersburg / Tampa / Sarasota, Florida 04/22/20:
Imagine this: Life is going great. You are an independent contractor making music for a living. Your calendar is full of gigs that have been booked for at least a year. You are confident that your income is on track for a successful month. Then in one quick swoop, all that confidence disappears due to something our world hasn’t seen for a hundred years.
How will I pay my rent? How will I buy groceries? How will I support my family?
This barrage of questions is plaguing the community of professional musicians all over the world as we speak. So many have lost every last source of income due to the mandatory cancellations of events and venue closures due to COVID-19.
Here in the Tampa Bay area Brandon C. Williams, a local Producer & Musician, and owners of The MAR St Pete, Heather and Dave Hamar, answered this call for help with an inspiring solution.
“As a Musician and Producer, the well being of the musical community is one of the most important things to me,” says Williams. “They are struggling right now and we need to help as quickly as we can.” Williams created a T-shirt idea with a simple message of solidarity. “Let Music Be the Cure.” This message encourages us to trust that music allows us to transcend these difficult times. And after things become a little more like “normal,” supporters will have a reminder of how special live music is to all of us. Heather and Dave joined in by creating a charity campaign through their Nonprofit, Project MAR, for the shirt sales. “We love our Performing Arts Community and our mission is to help Performing Artists and now we get to do just that even sooner than we had imagined. This is the perfect time to come together and spread a message of hope in a time when we really need it,” says Heather Hamar. Now when supporters purchase one of these shirts the proceeds will be used to help struggling musicians in the Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota areas.
In order to get the buzz going about this campaign, this dynamic philanthropic team decided to join forces with a friend and local business owner. Jarrett Haas, Co-Creator of Different Church in St. Pete, proposed the idea of a telethon to get people excited about the campaign. “At Different Church, we love music and that means we also love musicians! We are really proud to play a part in helping to give back to those who give us so much,” says Haas.
“Let Music be the Cure!” is the name of the telethon due to air on May 1st on Facebook at 8:00pm EST. This heartfelt and musical Telethon is sure to grab at your heart strings and inspire you to band together with this group of individuals trying to make a difference one t-shirt at a time. You can join this inspiring movement by either going straight to The MAR St Pete’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/TheMarStPete/ on May 1st to watch the show, or donate directly on their nonprofit website www.project-mar.org any time. This group needs YOUR help now! Tune in on May 1st and help the amazing community of Musicians all around us!
*If you are a musician who needs help and you would like to apply for this program, visit www.project-mar.org and press the apply button at the bottom.