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Our Second Show:
Our second show was held in Fremont, Michigan on October 20, 2007. Over $4,000 was raised for research, which will someday find a cure Cystic Fibrosis.
Sponsors for the show are listed here. You can see photographs of the performances at OurSpace, and the bands that preformed are listed here. Web Design and maintenance for this site and MySpace, and photography donated by Bill and Pam Warren. Local students manned the concessions.
Please take the time to read the statement that our founder, Jimmy Kittle, wrote regarding the show:
Pickin' on CF April 19, 2008
Describing success
On April 19, we had the second “Pickin’ On Cystic Fibrosis” Bluegrass festival. Since then many times I’ve been asked if it was a success. That made me think, what determines success? Originally, making money for CF research was what I considered a success. While that is still a big part of it, but I found there is so much more.
The following is just a small list of what determined a success for me:
- Holding the show in the beautiful Dogwood Center and having their entire staff involved.
- The Pride of Newaygo County group providing the food, “These are some great Kids.”
- Great sponsors, Shape Corp., Gerber Products Co., Native Wood Music, The Times Indicator.
- Some of the best musicians in the state donate their time and talent
- Having some of the young musicians from the area show their talents
- Meeting families that, are or have been, affected by CF and have hope for a cure.
- Having people drive from as far away as Louisville, KY with gas at $3.50 a gallon
- Seeing the faces of local residents and music fans from across the state.
- Meeting people of all ages who have never heard this music, who enjoyed finding something new.
- Having friends volunteer to run web sites, take pictures, put up flyers and anything else needed.
- Meeting, becoming friends and having the support of folks that just want to help. Having the support of my wife and family.
This list could continue on and by tomorrow I will remember others, but I think the message is clear. A success is not just measured just by the amount of money raised. It is measure in life experiences, and hopefully this was a great experience for all those that participated and supported this event.
Oh Yeah’ and thanks to all for their efforts, the event raised $4,000 for Cystic Fibrosis Research.
THAT IS SUCCESS!!
Jim Kittle
Please check out the photographs of the show on our MySpace site.
Please visit our sponsors. Our sponsors have contributed generously, making it possible for us to donate the proceeds from our show to find a cure for Cystic Fibrosis.
For information on Cystic Fibrosis visit their site.
First show
Our first show was held in Fremont, Michigan on October 20, 2007. Over $1,000 was raised for research, which will someday find a cure Cystic Fibrosis. Sponsors for the show are listed here. You can see photographs of the performances at OurSpace, and the bands that preformed are listed here. Web Design and maintenance for this site and MySpace, and photography donated by Bill and Pam Warren. Local students manned the concessions.
After the show, Jim Kittle, the founder of Pickin' on CF, made this statement:
Although I'm somewhat disappointed in the outcome of yesterday's show, I'm certainly not going to feel bad about it. It was a great show and I'm proud to have been able to put on what I feel was a quality program. When I billed this show, I stated it was the best bluegrass bands Michigan had to offer. They certainly lived up to that. They were outstanding, they were all on their "A" game and I am grateful to them. The local support for this event was not as I expected and that was their loss.
I haven't added up what the total profit was, it is somewhere around $1,000.00 to donate to CF. But, I think for me the best part of the evening was at the end. A couple came up to the stage and shook my hand. They had never been to a bluegrass show, and they loved it. They came because they lost a 13 year old son to CF in 1980. They wanted to come and support a CF event and thank me for doing this. During the last part of the evening I wasn't sure I would ever do this again, but they reminded me why I was there. If there was only one dollar raised, it just might just be the last dollar needed to find a cure, that's what this was all about. It's not just raising a large about of money, it's only about raising one dollar, the last ONE.
So, I am going to regroup, sit down a look at what I did wrong, what I did right, then figure out how to do this bigger and better. Those of us that have sons and daughters with this disease have too much at stake to give up.
To all of you that did support this show and those of you that traveled from other parts of the state, I thank you for your support and I hope you enjoyed the show and the beautiful fall colors in West Michigan.
God Bless,
Jimmy Kittle
Pickin' On Cystic Fibrosis