Music to End Hunger and Poverty

Erin Sydney Welsh will be performing this weekend to raise money for Heifer InternationalHigh School student Erin Sydney Welsh is using her music to support a worthy cause. Her band, Erin's Amazing All-Star Heifer Farm Revue, is a group - a movement if you will - of musicians dedicated to spreading positive thought through music and raising funds to support Heifer International. The band's motto is "Music to end hunger and poverty". The band and concerts consist of many musical acts - some solo and some groups,that get together from time to time for concerts, raising donations to Heifer. There website, (www.myspace.com/heiferfarmrevue) gives you a glimpse into the style and more information of Heifer can be seen by visiting their site www.heiferinternational.org. Heifer provides animals and farming expertise to poor families and communities around the world (including the US) to help them become self-sustaining.

The next concert is on Saturday, August 28, at 7:00 pm, outdoors at the Second Presbyterian Church at 71 Van Buren Street, Lockport, NY 14094.

The event will feature ten performances including, Noah Gokey, Jimmy Gordon, Erin Elizabeth Jeffords, Rachel Mellas, Koby Trout, Chris Squier, Matt Surowiec, Tim Sylvester, Erin Sydney Welsh and Jennifer Whitmore. Most of the artists are well known artists, but a few are up-and-coming songwriters and performers.

Admission is free but donations are welcome to Heifer. So far, the revues have raised a bit over $400 at our first two shows, toward the overall goal of $5,000.

Another goal of the Revue is to help the local community. For example, the Broadway Market is struggling to survive, so the Revue did a Saturday afternoon show there to help them attract people to their market. The Second Presbyterian Church is working to build "community" in an area of Lockport that is having its own struggles- so they're heading there to help them out.

Erin stated, "My interest in supporting Heifer International really took off after my family visited their "demonstration farm" in Mass. last summer with a group from our church. We spent a few days working on the farm, where they had animals, crops and housing similar to what one would find in some of the poorest areas of the world. When we weren't milking goats or herding sheep, we were learning about the hardships many people face - and how a gift of livestock and training can help them climb out of the worst imaginable poverty and hunger. The more I learned - the more I knew I wanted to help."