UPDATE - 4/7@11:20PM: A lot has happened since I originally posted this. Jessica is getting the official backing of S-CAP and other fans from across the country are also reaching out to help. Reader leezgirl (Lisa O), who is connected with the AIDS Project Worcester is teaming up with Jessica and will be running a similar project in the metro Boston area. Jessica is also trying to get the word out to local radio stations that are sponsoring the various Rush shows and also to other Rush fan sites. So help spread the word if you can! Remember, for all the details on the project visit the Rush to Fight AIDs MySpace page (check out the blog entries for information on the metro Boston area project).
A couple weeks back I got an email from one reader - Jessica - who had been inspired by Rush's music to create a charity project to help out AIDs patients. Jessica is a volunteer for the Southern Colorado AIDS Project (S-CAP). They and organizations like them help their clients navigate their lives as normally and efficiently as possible while they are unfortunately spending much of their life savings on doctors and medications. One of the services they provide is a food bank. But organizations that house food banks are often not allowed to use their grant money to buy personal care items. One thing they've started doing is collecting hotel toiletries and packing them together to make mini hygiene kits for their clients. Jessica, being a Rush fan, thought about all the Rush fans that would be travelling this summer to go to Rush shows and how many of them would be staying in hotels. Her idea is to leverage the Rush fanbase to give any unused toiletry items from their hotel stays to her charity project. Rather than try to explain all the logistics, I'll just include these instructions/details from Jessica's Rush to fight AIDS mySpace page that she recently set up:
... 1. Collect any toiletry items from the hotels you stay in. We can use anything and everything, as long as it's unopened. If you need to save yours, grab them at night, and when your room is cleaned in the morning, they will leave another set.
2. Put everything in a Ziploc bag (the altitude up here can cause things to leak--yuck).
3. Get an appropriate sized padded envelope, and mail your collection to me at:
RUSH to fight AIDS
4833 Front Street
Unit B #184
Castle Rock, CO 80104For those of you attending the Red Rocks show, I'll actually be there in the parking lot to take donations. I hope to meet a lot of you and personally thank you for your efforts.
If you have any questions about logistics, feel free to contact me--I can give you some tips so that this will be as easy as possible, especially if you are traveling to multiple shows and what not. You can message me here, or contact me by email at jaytee578@gmail.com. I should also mention the fact that even if you are not a Rush fan, but you like to travel, still feel free to contribute! I will welcome donations from anyone and everyone.
I'll gather donations for the duration of the entire tour, and then at the end, distribute them among the different AIDS projects in Colorado--CAP in Denver (www.coloradoaidsproject.org), SCAP in Colorado Springs (www.s-cap.org), WESTCAP in Grand Junction (www.westcap.info), NCAP in Fort Collins (www.ncaids.org), and BCAP in Boulder (www.bcap.org). The effects will be very far-reaching--no one can deny the reality of HIV/AIDS in our communities. I figured I would start with Colorado and then bring this to more of a nationwide effort if I have the quantity of donations to do it. Wouldn't THAT be amazing! ...
Jessica also wants to make clear that she is not affiliated with Rush in any official way, nor is S-CAP sponsoring her. She's just a random person with a good idea. So help her out if you can. To contact Jessica and for all the details on the project, go to the Rush to fight AIDS mySpace page.
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