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Spring 2006

Here in the Florida April, it’s already 90 degrees on some days and we’re having serious brush fires from the drought. Life goes forward and so does Sunshine - thanks for visiting!

Nearby Camp Boggy Creek (www.boggycreek.org) serves youth campers with many different illnesses, not just HIV. It is a wonderful place where I took my own children to visit in Fall 2004 and again this March to spend some time and play for / with the kids and staff camping there.

Sunshine continues to support CBC as much as we are able. Later in 2006 I’ll be involved in a large event in North Carolina benefiting Victory Junction, which is a camp modeled after Camp Boggy Creek! I’m really looking forward to that and will post more details when they are available.

Another organization I recently was introduced to is New Hope for Kids (www.newhopeforkids.com). Very close to my neighborhood, it is an inviting, comfortable children’s grief counseling center in a residential house. The work there is sorely needed, powerful, successful. I performed for their annual fundraising event and toured their facilities earlier this month; I plan to get more involved.

I am reminded that last year in May - nearly a year ago now - I had the privilege of being part of a fundraiser concert for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, TN). That songwriters concert, which raised $65,000 for St. Jude’s, was held at the Grand Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi. Of course, the hotel (and the whole town, pretty much) were tragically wiped out by Hurricane Katrina a few months later.

I mention this as a reminder that we all get to vote in this year’s November elections. If you are dissatisfied with the way the Gulf Region has been handled in the aftermath of Katrina, you can effect some change by voting for different leaders with different ideas and priorities. If you believe things have gone well enough, you can vote that way, of course. This is what makes our country strong. It is what our soldiers fight and die for. Please vote.

Finally, this year marks the 10th Rock4Xmas, an annual charitable musical effort produced by my friend Wayne Morrison. Wayne has gifted a lot of musical equipment (and other things) to kids and families who want and need it to better their lives. I’m proud to be a part, along with many other professional musicians, of Wayne’s efforts; we hope 2006 will be better than ever. More details as they unfold - a CD and tour are in the works. (www.rock4xmas.com)

Thanks, as always, for visiting our site and for supporting our small efforts to make a difference in the lives of children and families who need our help. We are more than happy to do it!

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