Music Rising Receives Halo Award

Hi all!

By now, Regina has already shared the news with most of you but we thought it'd be good have it posted here in the blog as well...So here it is.

The Awards were held last Tuesday in New York. Unfortunately, Henry and Caroline were in Nashville, Edge was in Europe and I was in LA so none of us could attend but Henry did a lovely video piece that was shown at the Awards dinner.

We're all really proud of this recognition of our efforts, but to Edge and me this award really belongs to Henry and Caroline and all the good folks at Gibson Musical Instruments who have given so much of themselves to make Music Rising a reality.

Henry (he'll probably blush at this) is the most committed and giving CEO that I have ever met. I wish that the rest of the country's business leaders had 10% of his heart and determination to make a difference. If they did, we'd have solved a lot of society's problems and would be far better off as a nation. But we're thankful that this CEO puts his money and his effort behind what he believes in and, though he's very quiet about his contribution, it is Henry's belief in this initiative that made it possible in the first place.

And Caroline has been Music Rising's mom :-) She came up with the name, by the way. Edge and I were playing around with all sorts of ideas but the minute Caroline said "Music Rising" we said, "that's it!!!" She has done a truly remarkable job of moving us forward, creating opportunities for us and keeping us in the public consciousness. The marketing part of this "cause marketing" initiative is all her. And she's a big part of the "cause" bit too.

So, Henry and Caroline, this Award is for you . Congratulations to you both!!!!

Bob and Edge

June 14 (New York) –Music Rising, a campaign launched to replace the lost or destroyed instruments of the musicians affected by the Gulf Region hurricanes, received the Gold Cause Marketing Halo Award for Best Transactional Campaign at the fourth annual Cause Marketing Forum conference on Tuesday, June 13^th in New York.

The campaign, launched by U2’s The Edge, producer Bob Ezrin, Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, The Guitar Center Music Foundation and MusiCares has since aided over 1,600 Gulf Region musicians. Gibson Guitar produced 300 exclusively designed Music Rising Gibson guitar which were sold by Guitar Center. The $1 million raised went directly to Music Rising which was facilitated by MusiCares and the Gibson Foundation.

The Cause Marketing Halo Awards demonstrate the good that can be done when businesses and nonprofits team up,” said David Hessekiel, president of Cause Marketing Forum, Inc., the program’s organizer. “It’s a competition in which we all win.” Cause marketing is the strategy of building mutually beneficial alliances between companies and causes.

“In 1990 cause marketing spending was a bit more than $100 million – this year it is forecast to top $1.3 billion,” said Hessekiel. CMFI produces an annual conference, workshops, teleclasses and causemarketingforum.com, a website offering free resources to businesses and nonprofits interested in developing such programs.

“Music Rising was an initiative formed by passionate inaugural partners in the music industry and the desire to help people in need,” said Henry Juszkiewicz, Chairman and CEO of Gibson Guitar. “To date we have helped many people regain their livelihood and our goal is to continue to help many more. The music of the Gulf Region can once again be heard throughout the world and capture the essence of one of the countries richest traditions.”

The Cause Marketing Forum also announced that The Home Depot and KaBOOM! each received Cause Marketing Golden Halo Awards for their leadership in this fast-growing field.

LONG Overdue Post

We have really been remiss in our duties here and we apologize. Along with working our little tails off for Music Rising, we are all busy with our "day jobs". Edge is busy making music (as he always is), Henry is busy taking over the world with Gibson Musical Instruments and I am busy in the studio. Caroline is spinning more plates than anyone I have ever met. Nina Miller, who runs the Gibson Foundation, has joined our team as well and she is busy managing the many charitable efforts of that wonderful company. All of our friends at MusiCares continue to work very hard at finding, qualifying and taking care of the professional musicians who are recipients of Music Rising grants, all while running scores of other programs that they offer. In short, the wheels keep turning but that's no excuse for not being here more often. We all apologize and will try harder to be closer in touch.

It's been over 8 months since the disaster of last summer. It's hard to believe it's been that long as it sometimes feels like only yesterday to us. And yet, to hundreds of thousands of displaced residents it must feel like an eternity.

The good news is that many things are beginning to happen in the Central Gulf. Most importantly, the Army Corps of Engineers has acknowledged its mistakes in maintaining the levees and has corrected them and brought the levees up to proper code (at least, that's the assurance and we are all hoping that it is true). Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest were both successful and important for the economic recovery of New Orleans in particular, Ray Nagin has been given a mandate to lead the charge and rebuild the city, money is pouring into projects (see exerpt from Times Picayune article below) and the Saints will re-open the SuperDome on September 25th!

The bad news is that whole parishes and towns continue to languish, mired in bureaucracy and red tape, as they try to figure out how to rebuild. Many of the displaced will never return to their old neighborhoods and have already moved on. I do believe that everyone means well and is working hard, but they seem hampered by layers and layers of process that make it hard to move forward even under the best of circumstances.

Music Rising, on the other hand, marches along and continues to have an impact on the health of the region. So far over 1,700 musicians have gotten the instruments and/or gear they needed to get back on their feet via Music Rising grants. And now, as we have stated publicly, we are turning our attention to providing instruments to churches and schools.

Our ticket/guitar auctions are over and involved more than 100 acts, including Madonna, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Elton John, Toby Keith and Bonnie Raitt. We raised some money and a HUGE amount of awareness across the country. We are so thankful to Ticketmaster for their leadership in this effort and to our promoter partners Live Nation, House of Blues, AEG Live and Nederlander Concerts for their hard work in carrying this off. We especially want to thank our friend Arthur Fogel for being the catalyst that brought us together with all of these wonderful people starting back in the fall of last year.

We want to thank our partners at MusiCares for making the professional musicians' program possible and for doing all the hard work. And now we are joined by the wonderful folks at the Gibson Foundation who are supporting and housing our efforts going forward.

Edge, Henry and I also want to shout out personally to Marty Albertson, Larry Thomas and all the folks at Guitar Center and Musicians Friend, and to Lian Lunson who designed, and Sebastian Clayton and the wonderful team at U2.com who implemented, this lovely website for us.

And we want to thank all of you for your donations, ideas and efforts on our behalf. Please know that every dollar we raise goes directly back into the replacement of musical instruments and performance gear. We have no big infrastructure, no offices or rent, no paid staff. In fact, it's just us and the chickens here...and ALL of you.

This is just the beginning of a new phase of activities for Music Rising. Check back here from time to time to read about our new initiatives (we'll be more communicative, you'll see).

It may be summer holidays for some, but for us it's the beginning of a new phase of even harder work for us to keep the awareness up and the commitment alive to bring the music, the heart and the soul back to this wonderful region.

Best wishes to you all.

Bob

*******

New city hall, jazz park
planned near Superdome
Hyatt owner commits financing,
leadership
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
By Rebecca Mowbray
Michelle Krupa and Greg Thomas
- Staff writers


Under a sweeping downtown
revitalization plan unveiled
Tuesday, the defunct New
Orleans Shopping Centre and a
nearby aging government office
complex would be converted
into a modern 20-acre multiuse
National Jazz Center and park
buttressed by public office
buildings.


The $715 million project,
spearheaded by Strategic
Hotels & Resorts, the
Chicago-based owner of the
Hyatt Regency New Orleans
Hotel, is the first major
redevelopment project
announced since Hurricane
Katrina.


If it comes to fruition, the
project could revitalize the
upper end of Poydras Street
and refashion New Orleans by
encouraging additional
residential construction
downtown. It would also give a
boost to the adjacent medical
corridor and to long-discussed
notions of creating an
entertainment district on
South Rampart Street and
redeveloping the nearby Union
Passenger Terminal.