The Mayor's Emergency Fund Telethon

Let me tell you a story about the Mayor's Emergency Fund Telethon in Melrose, MA. Blue of a Kind were invited to repeat our appearance which was quite successful last year. In 2008, we sang a holiday song and a blues number, and we met the incoming pledges dollar-for-dollar while we sang. Well, a telethon is a wild and woolly thing so every dollar was matched. Why shouldn't that be that case?

This year, we decided to put up 50 of the "To the Sky" CDs as a challenge and give them away to the first 50 callers who pledged $50 or more. We knew that the offer would be taken and matched either during our singing, or soon thereafter.

What is it like being Super Stars?

The local cable station was a little reluctant to go with the offer. They thought we might not push out all 50, or we might cheapen the value of our brand. But I figured we'd raise $2500 for families in need in all of about 5 minutes if they'd go with it. So we stood our ground. It was a 50-50-50 deal - 50 CDs for the first 50 folks to pledge $50.

We sang our first song - "O Come All Ye Faithful" and it was warm and lovely, powerful and rich. The guys were in good form and terribly psyched about raising serious money with our 50-50-50 deal. After the 1st song, the MC announced there had been a single pledge against our offer. Oops...

Cut to commercial...

The station cut to some pre-recorded material. After a minute and a half, we were live again, and apparently the phones had been ringing. Real time is sometimes a bit slow... folks have to rise from chairs, relieve themselves, collect the phone, dial, talk... The Mayor was all excited about the "TOTE" board and directed us to the video screen for the current total cash raised. Well, a couple of grand had come in in about 3 minutes. Wow!

They held us on stage to sing a few more songs. We sang a Hunnukah number, "Hanerot Hallalu" to reach out to our Jewish neighbors and friends. It was equally warm and lovely, and the "TOTE" numbers continued to soar. We nailed a blues number just to add to the joy of the season, "The Tears Came Rollin' Down" and the pledges kept coming in.

They held us longer, introduced guests to stand in front of us, asked us for an encore. The dollars continued to pour in.

What is it really like to be Super Stars?

Yes, I ask the question again. My blue guys know what it's like - they got to be Super Stars tonight. You don't get to do this without sticking your necks out, putting in lots of hard work and having Faith. I had hoped to raise $2500 for the cause in a few minutes of singing. It turns out in all of about 8 minutes, we raised nearly double that. Lots of hard work to create music and fun turned into some powerful relief for families who desperately need some help. My guys know what it's like to be Super Stars. Blue of a Kind were champions tonight.