Heave Media

A Cause For Attention

Causes for attention keep calling, and this holiday brings out the best in many.

This Thanksgiving: Against Me!, the Harvest of Hope Foundation, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

Happy Thanksgiving, HEAVE readers, and here's hoping that your list of things to give thanks for is at an all time high this year.

Thanksgiving night, a special Against Me! acoustic show, with Sage Francis, World Inferno Friendship Society and Cobra Skulls, will begin at 6PM at Metro (3730 N. Clark St., Chicago). The show is benefiting two organizations: The Harvest of Hope Foundation, through ticket sales, and the Greater Chicago Food Depository, through the generosity and forethought of fans' donated non-perishable food items at the door.

The Harvest of Hope Foundation was established in 1997 as a non-profit organization helping heighten awareness of the plight of migrant farm workers in the United States. They share their hometown with the members of Against Me!, with headquarters in Gainesville, Florida.

The organization provides emergency and educational financial aid to former and current migrant farm workers and their families, especially to migrant students attending college. Along with specific aid, the foundation issues small grants to programs that assist migrant families, coordinating with agencies that assist with education, immunizations and medical needs, and social services.

In the last ten years, Harvest of Hope has distributed nearly $600,000 for critical car repairs, medical services, utilities, food, clothing, funeral expenses and scholarships.

Currently, the foundation is accepting special donations to help 6-year-old Diana Olalde of Tifton, Georgia, who has been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and is in need of a bone marrow transplant. According to the Harvest of Hope website, the approximate cost of a transplant can start at $500,000, and doctors say Olalde must have the operation within a month.

A post on the homepage of Against Me! asks fans to"please help...Diana's family is unable to contemplate affording such a transplant, so any amount that anyone can generously donate would be, needless to say, immensely appreciated."

For more information on Diana and her condition: Click Here.

Posted by Leen Morrissey on Nov 22, 2007 @ 12:00 am