June 19 is my least favorite day of the year. This year, June 19, 2022, marks seven years since my mom passed. [In] previous years, I would spiral into being an anxious and depressed mess, stuck in a loop reliving the day she died. That all changed in 2020 when I decided to do something positive with my grief. I was inspired by Games Done Quick and what they created with their marathon that benefits Prevent Cancer and I thought, how could I do something similar?
During quarantine in 2020, my freelance work had basically stopped. So for fun, I started a podcast and TikTok account about one of my loves: international ska and punk music. I’ve been fortunate that both have taken off a little bit. I decided to expand into a record label—Ska Punk International—since that’s something I’ve always wanted to do. When it comes to do-it-yourself music, it’s pretty common to do releases for charity, so I thought, maybe I can do something. I reached out to bands and asked them to cover songs that moms might like and so I put out the first set of that—Songs For Moms Volume 1—on June 19, 2021, and it went really well. We got a lot of press and raised some money, so we decided to do it again this year. On June 19, 2022, Songs For Moms Volume 2 came out, as well as Songs for Dads on another label. Look out for Songs for Moms on Bandcamp, and help prevent cancer!
Interested in hosting your own fundraiser? Get started like Chris with two easy steps:
- Go to www.youcanpreventcancer.org to create your personal fundraising page.
- Share that page with your friends and family!
No Comments