Last year at this time, Teen Spirit’s band, Cool and Unusual Punishment, organized a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina at the Old Stone House called "Teens for New Orleans."
That show turned out great. More than 200 kids and adults showed up and it was a blast for a great cause.
This year the band is planning another benefit. This time, it’s "Teens for the Philippines" and they’re reaching out to street children in Manila. This benefit will support a home that is being built for these kids.
The show is on October 14th from 6-9 p.m. Here’s the line-up: Zach Fine on sitar, RAPR, Tetsuwan Fireball, Somewhere There’s a Fix, and Cool and Unusual Punishment.
TICKETS ARE $10 dollars for adults and $5 dollars for kids.
There will be food for sale as well as information about St. Martin de Pores, which is a home for kids and teens rescued from the
streets of Manila. Though many of them are not technically orphans,
they effectively are as living on the streets is often safer than
living at home. Many are abused by their parents, who more often than
not are crippled by their own addictions to drugs and inability to deal
with the pressures of extreme poverty. So at very young ages, children
head out to the streets to beg, collect plastic garbage to sell, shine
shoes, and scrape out a very meager living. They sleep wherever they
can and eat by scavenging through the garbage at outdoor markets and
picking through the dump. Not surprisingly many end up falling in with
gangs, resort to petty thievery and prostitution, and sadly many don’t
survive past their teens.
To help these kids, a priest born in the Philippines, Father Boyet,
has founded a home for them outside Manila, which my foundation, the
John D.V. Salvador Foundation, is raising money to expand. Not only did
he create a safe loving place for them to live, he and the house
parents and volunteers transport them to a local school, where they are
all learning and acquiring skills that will allow them to break free of
the cycle of homelessness and poverty. The proceeds from Teens for the
Philippines would go toward the construction of a dormitory for the
home’s teen boys, who have been sleeping in a former Manila city bus
that’s been outfitted with bunk beds. The dormitory is nearly completed
and construction set to begin in the spring on the girls’ dorm.
To buy tickets or donate even if you can’t make it go here: