Second Chance! MySpace Nominates New Orleans Musicians

We're aware that you all voted like champs this summer, and that we were competing with a group 100,000 strong, but the MySpace Impact Awards have again nominated the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc. for Community Building. We deeply appreciate you doing anything you can to help us win.

The $10,000 grant the Fund receives will directly help New Orleans musicians where they are now. Thanks for your consideration.

(Click Icon Below to Vote)



http://myspace.com/impactawards

After voting, a $5 PayPal Badge donation would be very much appreciated - it's our holiday fund drive, totally green since you'll never get a glossy brochure followup. Every little bit counts and it's how our grass roots nonprofit has stayed alive for two years now.



Finally, this is our new video featuring the late Barry Cowsill's "Kid" and REM's "South Central Rain". It kicks off with Barry jugging bubbles, a very Barry thing to do if you knew him. The New Wave Brass Band second lined at his memorial and our Fund was glad to be able to replace the band's instruments after the storm. Songs are available on our download at www.NOMRF.org.

Kid: The Legend of Barry Cowsill (With REM Track) by NOMRF.org

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Badges? The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund Has Badges!!

We're thrilled to announce that the Impact Channel, PayPal and MySpace have chosen the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund as one of the charities to benefit from a brand new fund-raising badge. NOMRF is in good company with worthy causes including OxFam and One.org.

The PayPal contributions start with $5, because we believe that every dollar counts. As a green charity we have never sent out glossy brochures, so this is as close as our grass-roots fund will get to making a major impact for the musicians of New Orleans.

The Fund started by and for displaced musicians still rents no office space to help each donor dollar stretch further. Hundreds of grants have gone out thanks to supporters like Dr. John and REM, as well as caring individuals from around the world.

After two years of doing their best to rebuild their lives, many musicians are still in Houston, Dallas or much further away. And we're losing them too soon. Your donation can make a direct difference in the life of a displaced New Orleans musician.



Please email questions or comments on your PayPal Badge experience and we'll forward the feedback to MySpace. Thanks, as always, for supporting the music.

- The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund
(http://myspace.com/nomrf)

It's The Katrina Anniversary Week. Do You Really Want to Be Around NOMRF If We Lose Impact?

So the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is at 4 percent in the MySpace Impact Awards, and voting is open through Friday.

That's respectable because NOMRF is 96 percent smaller than the other nominee, but for the love of god IT'S THE KATRINA ANNIVERSARY WEEK. Do you really want to be around us if we lose? It's too sad to contemplate.

NOMRF is aware that means everyone has to make a lot more friends and all of those friends have to vote, but we deeply appreciate you doing anything you can. It's pretty much going to require half a million votes a day.

The $10,000 grant we receive will directly help New Orleans musicians. Recent studies show 70 percent are still gone. NOMRF.org helps them where they are now.

Thanks for your consideration,

The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund, Inc.

(Click Icon Below to Vote)



http://myspace.com/impactawards

Long Shot Gets Second Chance. Note from Founder

To make up for technical difficulties, which works out great for us (The New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund is the underdog), MySpace is extending voting for the Impact Awards to Friday, Aug. 24th. That's time for us to find 96,500 more friends.

A little more about the Fund? We just passed along a donated van and found ourselves apologing that it's a '98. The brass band leader corrected us. "It's not just a van, it's a ride." A ride that will help get his kid to camp.

Imagine waking up tomorrow and packing up everything you can fit in the car. Your guitar, home studio, merchandise - everything you leave behind is lost. Two years after Hurricane Katrina, NOMRF tries to help still-displaced musicians survive. Along with grants, the Fund has offered housing, furniture, transportation and instruments.

My wife and I founded this nonprofit in internet cafes and FEMA rooms while out on the road post-Katrina, and hundreds of grant recipients are still spread throughout the country. We are still displaced, and still pay no office rent to help donations go further.

With volunteer graphic designers, publicists and video producers, everything you see on our MySpace is a labor of love. Ian Hunter's "How's Your House" streams on MySpace Television, and visitors can sample the ReDefine 8/29 Download Project. Our blogs and bulletins also help promote fund-raisers like the amp being signed by Mike Mills of REM, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Ian Hunter and Dr. John. Musicians are truly the soul of New Orleans, and with help from this MySpace Impact Award Nomination, we can continue to reach out to them as they play their way home.

Some have made it back, some are still evacuated and some are fatalities of the storm. I lost two old friends and bandmates, Barry Cowsill (photo at right) and Scott Sherman, to Katrina. Like many other New Orleans musicians, everyone in my family lost everything.

As the years pass, more and more of our legends are passing away without ever making it home. Thanks to REM, Wilco, Dr. John, Ian Hunter and every band on our ReDefine 8/29 Download, displaced New Orleans musicians know the rest of the world still cares enough to give them a hand up instead of a handout. Thousands of MySpace friends care. Thanks to the MySpace Impact Awards Nomination, millions can.

Jeff Beninato
Founder
NOMRF.org

Vote Early, Vote Often for New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund

We're in the final three! You can vote daily from now though Friday for the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund in the MySpace Impact Awards, Community Building category. Reposting this badge and the blurb on MySpace would be a great help. The other two finalists have hundreds of thousands of myspace friends so NOMRF is a long shot but hopeful.

Individuals have helped keep this grass roots Fund alive for almost two years, and that has helped displaced New Orleans musicians.

(Click Icon Below to Vote)