SOOTS’ Holiday Mini Grant: MATCHING FUNDS FOR THE GEORGE HIGGS MEDICAL RELIEF FUND

With your support, 2012 was another great success. SOOTS raised over $6,000 to help North Carolina’s aging Piedmont Blues musicians. Through local sponsorship, Raleigh Charter patronage, and the energetic audiences that attended our benefit concerts and 3rd Annual Art Farm and May Day Cake Bake, SOOTS’ students were able to return six different musicians to our stage: John Dee Holeman, Boo Hanks, George Higgs, Ironin’ Board Sam, Ligthnin’ Wells and Tad Walters along with our first feature of Justin Robinson and his new band the Mary Annettes. What an exciting year, but we still have work to do.

In 2008, SOOTS instituted a medical mini grant program at the behest of Music Maker Relief Foundation founder Tim Duffy. Tim encouraged SOOTS to do whatever we could to help one of our favorite musicians, Mr. George Higgs, who has visited our classroom annually to share stories and his deeply rooted blues. Our initial grant helped offset George’s rising bills after falling ill. Then in 2010 we offered George another grant to help pay for the oxygen tank refills he had begun to ration to save money. Unfortunately, in late October of this year, just prior to a much anticipated gig at North Carolina’s Museum of History, Mr. Higgs was placed in intensive care again. He remains in the hospital. When I visited him, I wondered if SOOTS’ students knew how much they had enriched the life of this 84 year-old bluesman as I told him what he meant to us.

If you have attended our past benefit concerts and Fat Tuesday events, then you know how valuable George Higgs is to the Piedmont blues culture. 
Once again we would like to show Mr. Higgs and his wife that they have our full support. Please join our mission to sustain roots musicians and donate to the George Higgs Medical Relief Fund. We seek to help the Higgs recoup the fee George lost when he had to cancel his gig and to defray the cost of gas Mrs. Higgs has spent traveling from Tarboro to Greenville to visit George daily.

Through January 21st, we will accept donations to meet our goal of raising $1000. Thankfully, we have received a $500 grant check from the Questell Foundation (http://www.questellfoundation.org/) as seed money for this goal. We are confident that the greater Raleigh Charter community can match this generous donation – that we will rise to the challenge together.

Please make any check out to Raleigh Charter High School with “SOOTS: Higgs Medical Mini Grant” on the memo line. Any donations can be given to Charles Montague directly. Cash and coin are welcome. Then look for the success of the fund-raiser via our website (www.sootsblues.org). Thank you for helping us to help the Higgs and please keep an eye out for ever more creative ways our students have publicized this fundraiser via Twitter (@sootsblues) and Facebook. Note the smiles George and Betty Higgs have placed on our students and know that we will return the favor, together.

Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS) exists to foster an appreciation for the traditional music and culture of the American South. We believe this appreciation will engage our fellow students in greater communities. We pursue the preservation of artistic wisdom to help create a more perfect world.

In 2006, Raleigh Charter High School rewrote its Citizenship curriculum and asked each of its faculty members to select a non-profit with which to work in order to model more creatively how students could support communities in need. Charles Montague and his students chose to work with the Music Maker Relief Foundation and named their organization the Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS). Since 2007, SOOTS has organized six benefit concerts in downtown Raleigh and over a dozen other fundraisers, on and off campus, which have raised $40,000.

SOOTS Receives the "September Spotlight" at Whole Foods

3540 Wade Ave. Raleigh, North Carolina 27607

Thank you!

We would like to thank the greater Raleigh community as a whole, and especially the Wade Avenue Whole Foods for supporting us as the Community Spotlight for the month of September. Whole Foods as supported us annually at our Benefit Concert by providing refreshments for the artists; we couldn’t have asked for anything more and were honored when chosen for the community spotlight this September. As the community spotlight, Whole Foods donates the money from jars at each cash register every day in September.

To celebrate our community spotlight, Whole Foods put on a front porch concert featuring Lakota John Locklear. We are grateful to have Whole Foods as a sponsor, and hope you are too! Thanks to your generous donations, as well as raffle and merchandise sales, we raised over $500 towards supporting elderly blues musicians!

SOOTS' 3rd Annual Carolina Blues Benefit at UNC-CH
Featuring John Dee Holeman & Lightnin' Wells

September 20th - The Love House Lawn, 5-7 pm
410 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill
Free & Open to the Public

Thank you for celebrating Carolina Piedmont Blues Music at SOOTS' 3rd Annual Piedmont Blues on September 20th, it was a huge hit! We would like to thank those of you who took the time to appreciate the music of Lightnin' Wells and John Dee Holeman, as well as UNC Chapel Hill's Love House for facilitating a wonderful evening of blues. We would like to encourage everyone who attended to come to our 7th Annual Blues Benefit on April 19th at the Longview Center in Downtown Raleigh.

Thank you for celebrating North Carolina Piedmont Blues music.

SOOTS 2nd Annual Piedmont Bluesfest on September 30th was a smashing success. SOOTS would like to thank everyone who took time to appreciate the music that our musician partners (Lightnin' Wells and Boo Hanks) were able to put on for a crowd of over 50 people. We would like to encourage everyone who attended to come to our 7th Annual Fat Tuesday Film Festival on February 21st. If you are unable to enjoy the delicious student-made gumbos and the traditional Piedmont music of Ironin' Board Sam, fear not! Our 6th annual Blues Revue will be on April 13th at the Longview Center in Downtown Raleigh, shortly after Fat Tuesday.

The Sustaining Roots Music Community Project (SOOTS) congratulates the Raleigh Charter and greater Triangle community for supporting Boo Hanks, George Higgs & John Dee Holeman at the LongView Center last month. SOOTS raised over $2900.00 to help these talented musicians and their cultural treasures through the Music Maker Relief Foundation.

SOOTS would also like to note that this event would not have been possible without our many sponsors who are listed on Sustainers.

Many hearts were warmed, but we still need your help. Come to the May Day Cake Bake and Art Farm on May 18th @RCHS to support our student artists because you “can have your cake and eat it too” when you support SOOTS.