Thank you for visiting my fundraising page!
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Many thanks for your support -- and don't forget to forward this to anyone who you think might want to donate too!
OK , here it is 2008 and time for my second go round in the Texas Big Beat. Thanks to everyone who visited and was a contributor last year , through my page we raised almost $800.00 While my goal was $2000.00 , it was a good start for the first year so everyone gets a big pat on the back. So again this year I am setting the goal at $2000.00 to see if we can hit it.
It's not often that I get a chance to "give back" through playing, but this is a great opportunity and last year was a great spectacle for playeres and spectaters alike. There was lots of learning and positive energy going on and everyone seemed to enjoy our "day of thunder " imensly ( ever heard 500 drummers play at once, thunder is an understatement). Sure I have played benefeit show's and that is always a good time, but this is different, bigger and broader somehow. Besides it's for a good cause...kids! It's not just an investment in kids, but in the future. Give a kid a chance ,an opportunity to grow, to experience something he or she might not have normally had the benefeit of , left to normal day to day circumstances. Kids today while they have every advancement in technology known to man to make life convenient are starting drift away from really understanding what it means to be a kid, and are not experiencing travel,sports, art, literature , and from my perspective most of all music- essentially all of the things that inspire and broaden our minds. In order to inspire interest/desire in anyone they must first be exposed to it and that is the first step towards the learning process. Once the interest is there the want or desire to learn will naturally follow.Once that is present, as long it is supported and cultivated, then you have just opened the door to a whole new world for a kid. Especially when it offers an alternative to otherwise unfortunate circumstances.
My parents and family supported my interest in music starting at a very young age, I have been playing now for 28 years. It has kept me out of trouble and taught me so much, it has shaped who I am, it has presented me with opporunities that had I not been involved in music I probably never would have had.It has taught me the value of hard work, dedication,drive,imagination,independance , teamwork, and desire, as well as tasting failure and success. I have molded my entire life around playing drums and making music....everything I have learned through music I have been able to relate and use in the rest of my life making me successful and a better person. I met my better half and love of my life Christina because she stepped on my foot at a concert some 16 years ago...I was there because of my interest in music and I wanted to see the drummer . She has also been a huge support an inspiration in my life ...the night after we met she came down to a club in town to see my band play...an opportunity I might have missed had I not been involved in music...So much that I have to be thankful for because I have an education,an opportunity, and a life in music.
That all started because I had exposure to it. I'm usually pretty independant and don't like to ask much of anyone. Everyone has their own issues and lives to deal with, but I am going to ask this. If you can, do what ever you can to give a kid a chance, an opportunity to get exposure to something that might inspire him/her towards a goal, an education, a way to make a better life for him/herself and grow into doing something that they love in the process.This is a good way to do just that, and if we can do that then we'll all be successfull and no doubt the world will definately be a better place.
In short give me your support , bring yourself some luck and get up off a few bucks ( Karma -what comes around goes around and we could all use a bit of good will as far as I am concerned) .Come out and see how drummers do it! I'll be out there sweatin' and playin like a maniac! We have a big mark to hit and every little bit counts. So we're gonna make big noise untill everybody pays us to stop!!! HA HA!
Remember the deadline for donations is 11/01/08 in order to be recoreded as part of the event.
My sincerest thanks and best wishes.
-Kris
WWW.KRISARDOLINO.COM
WWW.TEXASBIGBEAT.COM
The Drummer
Drummers are a people that are a breed apart,we provide the world with it's constant beating heart.Playing with a passion that rips out from deep with in ,most others don't understand it so they say it 's sin. Grace and power have never been better known, a true ruler of emotions sitting upon a throne. Set back on high in this stage we call life , the true balance of time just like day and night.From anarchy and chaos we have always delivered men, through the wage of battles we triumphed again and again. We were the first language,the first music,and the first guide...we are what brings the world together as one terrific tribe.So as you sit pondering on what your strings are worth , you should have been a Drummer, the greatest thing on Earth!
Kris Ardolino
November 29 ,2004