A couple of weeks ago, Music City SF organized the first meeting of Music Communities for Change, a community organization of musicians and supporters of the arts that seeks to organize support around a variety of issues that affect San Francisco residents. Homelessness, being the biggest issue our city now faces, was an obvious choice for the focus of our first efforts. We are excited to partner with Ken Newman and Blanket the Homeless in distributing their care packages to our neighbors in the Lower Polk neighborhood. In the few days since we started, the joy these packages have brought to our local homeless community is astounding. And we are looking forward to the good work still to come!
— Danny Drysdale Community Liaison @ Music City SF
In June of 2018, Blanket the Homeless had been in existence for about 18 months. Our ‘infrastructure’ then was a newly built website, provided pro-bono by the wonderful folks at Newtek, a stack of large boxes filled with emergency blankets, socks, antiseptic creams, and Clif Bars, a large suitcase, a whole slew of talented and compassionate fellow musicians … and me.
On a day when I had a solo or band gig, I would stand in the doorway of my storage unit and assemble about 100 packages or so, throw them in my trunk alongside a couple of guitars and amps and head over to the venue where these BTH Care Packages would be tossed out to our rock and roll audience. These folks would then distribute them to anyone on the street who looked like they could use it.
Around that time, I realized that there was only so much I could do alone. I then reached out to my associates and friends, Stacy Webb at Compass Family Services and Heather Ripley at Larkin St. Youth Services. Over the previous 18 months, along with my band, Berkeley Bronx and a host of other talented and generous musicians, I had donated money to both of their organizations.
I asked them if they could help me find someone to partner with. A non-profit organization with a similar charter. Both of them recommended, St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco and passed my name along to them.
A week or so later, I met with Shari Wooldridge, Executive Director of SVDP-SF and after talking for about 20 minutes, we realized that this could well be a match made in heaven. She took me on a tour of their new facility which was in mid-renovation, introduced me to some of her team members, Ulises Zatarain, Lisa Handley and Ariel Preciado, and we all discussed what we might be able to accomplish … together.
Jump cut to June of 2019: In less than a year, the following things have happened:
We expanded our BTH packages to include, mylar emergency blankets, socks, winter caps, gloves, condoms, antiseptic creams and personal hygiene supplies.
The Clif Bar Company donated 1,000 Clif Bars to add to the package.
We ran a Facebook Fundraiser and raised over $8,000 in about 5 weeks!
Artist / Producer (and good friend) Scott Mickelson, decided to produce a Compilation Album (double vinyl) entitled “Blanket The Homeless.” He assembled a roster of 15 artists who all donated their time and talent. All proceeds from this project will benefit the BTH organization. For the story on this, please click HERE.
Ken Newman joins the team at Saint Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco in assembling our Blanket The Homeless Care Packages.
Ariel Preciado of SVDP-SF took our existing Resource Guide (originally developed by my friend Carla Laser), did an enormous amount of research, added several categories of free services and offered to have SVDP handle the printing costs.
We scheduled an “Assembly Line Day” at SVDP to assemble about 1,000 packages.
The San Francisco Zen Center asked for several hundred packages so they could distribute them.
Hundreds more were distributed at rock and roll shows at The Condor Club, The Boom Boom Room, El Rio and other venues.
We were contacted by Jennifer Harrison from Freenome. They were planning to feed 500 homeless people during the holidays and wanted 500 of our BTH Resource Guides to distribute. We provided those.
I was contacted by Dawn Oberg of the Gubbio Project which allows people to sleep in Churches. We provided them with 100 mylar blankets and 20 fabric blankets.
On Monday, June 24th, I attended the first meeting of Music Communities for Change, held at Music City, San Francisco. There, surrounded by guitar amps, a PA system, and a drum kit, I met with about a dozen passionate souls and we began discussions of what kind of work we might be able to do together.
Finally, on June 27th, staff members from St. Vincent de Paul, supported by volunteers from Etsy, made their way to the MSC – South Shelter and packed up a bunch of Blanket The Homeless kits to distribute to SVDP-SF clients.
I can honestly say that much of what we’ve accomplished in the last year (and what I am sure we WILL accomplish) is a direct result of the generosity and spirit that’s embodied in St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco.
San Francisco Zen Center, in coordination with the San Francisco Interfaith Council, participates in the Winter Shelter Program, providing shelter and meals to homeless individuals during the winter months.
This year, the Zen Center connected with Blanket The Homeless who provided us with ‘care packages’ to give away with the meals. These packages contained winter hats, socks, gloves, emergency blankets, antiseptic creams, nutrition bars donated by The Clif Bar Co, as well as a Resource Guide with information on facilities providing free food, shelter, medical, legal, and family support services throughout the City of San Francisco.
Needless to say, our guests received these with great enthusiasm and gratitude.
At the last two meals we provided we were able to offer over 100 of these packages. It was a wonderful addition to our efforts and we at Zen Center are very grateful for the generosity of Blanket the Homeless. Together we were able to be of greater service to our homeless community and we look forward to continuing collaboration with them.
We encourage other organizations to reach out to them at http://blanketthehomeless.org
Volunteers from St. Vincent de Paul Society of San Francisco on the Assembly Line putting our Blanket The Homeless packages together.
Last year, after the devastating fires in Northern CA, San Francisco Bay Area Producer, Scott Mickelson, decided to produce a compilation of Bay Area musical artists to raise money for an organization providing support to those who had lost so much. The compilation was called “After The Fire: Vol. 1” . Scott produced this record at his own expense, contacting artists, scheduling recording sessions, mixing and mastering. Over the several months it took to complete, he dedicated literally hundreds of hours of his time. And the artists involved donated their services as well.
The project was a huge success; not only raising thousands of dollars for the charity Scott selected, but also generating a considerable amount of local press coverage.
Because of the success of “After The Fire”, Blanket The Homeless decided to contract with Scott to produce a new compilation for the “Blanket The Homeless” organization. This one is much more involved and he will be working with higher profile artists. The plan is to have it completed by March 2019.
After completion, we plan to bring in a publicist to schedule a release date as well as several release shows. We are also looking at the possibility of a tour…
All proceeds from album sales, ticket sales, and merchandise sales will go towards supporting our ‘Blanket The Homeless’ Outreach program.
The following is a list of the very talented and generous artists who are part of this important project: We are incredibly grateful to them!
Tim Bluhm (of Mother Hips)
Fantastic Negrito
Con Brio
Goodnight, TX
King Dream
Brothers Comatose
Mickelson
Rainbow Girls
Whiskerman
Stone Foxes
John Craigie
Tobias The Owl
Marty O’Reilly & the Old Soul Orchestra
Coffis Brothers
Ken Newman (founder of Blanket The Homeless/Executive Producer)
Please check back to our Blog page often and we will keep you updated on the development of what promises to be an amazing piece of work!
‘Brothers Comatose’ Recording Session w/ Scott Mickelson for ‘Blanket The Homeless’ Compilation