Amazing Things Can Happen When You Ask For Help!

This past Summer the Kamloops Music Collective [KMC] was running our Summer Series Musical Theatre program out of the Kamloops United Church when the unthinkable happened; a fire broke out. In all of the chaos of that day we were overwhelmed by the support of our Kamloops community through actions too numerous to list.

Since the fire we have been left with much concern over the depth of the impact the fire and water damage caused to our valuable and extensive instrument and equipment collection, which spanned decades of collecting. Having lost approximately 2/3's of it initially to the fire, water, and mold damage, we knew early on that the outcome of the long and arduous insurance claim process would not cover all of what was lost.

Now 3 months on, and we have truly begun to assess piece by piece the extent of the damage. We have begun fundraising for both monetary donations, and physical donations. From issuing press releases to local news outlets, and advertising our 50/50 Draw, we have been promoting the fundraisers extensively.

On Halloween afternoon however KMC was delivered an a amazing gift from a local hero and his wife - who wish to remain anonymous. This gift is a huge boost to the start of our recovery efforts. The donation (purchased thanks to the help of some friendly deal making with the owner of Lee's Music and Riversong Guitars) consisted of approximately: 7 guitars (a mix of acoustic and electric), 2 amps, a full drum kit, miscellaneous cords and hardware, 2 ukuleles (one electric-acoustic), various cases and accessories for the instruments, and they ordered an 88 key Yamaha keyboard which comes in later this month (and was on a long-term wish list of ours to support our choirs during KISSM!).

To say that we were overwhelmed, and moved to tears, at the generosity of these 2 strangers who just happened to see the story written about us on Castanet, is an understatement.

We still have a long way to go as we continue to assess and replace the instruments we lost, but this single donation not only helps in a huge way with our collection, but it also helps lift our spirits as we as a non-profit and registered charity - continue to push to bring music and musical theatre to the youth of Kamloops. It is with help from amazing community members like these 2, and all of the others out there that have dropped off instruments to our office, that have help speed us along!

For more about the donation check out the CFJC news story on it HERE.

For the story on our 50/50 check out the CFJC news story HERE.