Busking For Babies

 Devon loves learning new songs on his ukulele!  The song list that he's built keeps getting longer and longer!  A few months ago, we started talking about how much fun it would be if we became buskers in our community.  I shared how this would be a great way for Devon to continue practicing his playing while creating opportunities for others to smile and enjoy his talents.

After a few emails and a few phone calls, I managed to make arrangements with the Western Fair Farmer's Market to get us involved in their busking program.

While we were getting ready, I shared with Devon how it would be great to share the donations that we would receive with local charities.  After a quick chat about what we would do, 'Busking For Babies' was born!!  We decided that we would use half of all the donations that were dropped into my guitar case to buy baby food and supplies for local charities.  I also told Devon that if we made a sign telling people about our plan that people might be inspired to drop a little more loose change into my guitar case... and this has proven to be true.

This is the Facebook post that I made just a couple of weeks ago, after our first busking experience.  As we were setting up, one shopper came over and said, "I'd love to hear you play, but I'm heading out right now.  But here's some money to support your effort.  I think that it's great that you are helping families in the area." And with that, she dropped 4 twoonies into my guitar case.  Devon and I were all smiles as we were already getting donations and we hadn't even started playing yet!!!

The Market was very busy on this day and we had collected $48.00 to buy baby supplies!  We decided to take our donations to the food bank in our neighbourhood.

This is what $48.00 worth of baby supplies, snacks, formula, wipes and food look like!  Our local food bank was very pleased to receive all of these supplies.

Since there are so many charities in London, Devon and I decided that we would share the supplies that we buy with more than just one.  We now have the names of several local charities that are all in need of baby food and supplies.  We have decided to rotate where we take our donations with each of these charities.

The next weekend, we went busking again!  This is my Facebook post from this effort.  As you can see, Santa joined our busking as we all sang Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree!  When we got to the end of the song where we sang out "Everyone dancing merrily in the new... old... fashioned... WAAAAYYYYYY" all the people around us joined in and the area burst into applause as Devon riffed on his ukulele to a grand ending!!! It was awesome!

I took this selfie just yesterday!  Now that we're in the month of December, Devon said that we should wear our Santa and elf hats... which we did!  The Market was actually very quiet yesterday!  I can only guess that many people were attending all the Christmas festivals now going on throughout the city.  We still managed to raise $23.00 for baby food and supplies and tomorrow I'll be taking it all to another local charity!

When our busking is done for the day, we take our chairs and our instruments and put them into our car. Then we go back into the Market to do a little shopping of our own.  Sometimes, we'll sit down with a hot chocolate and enjoy a sandwich and sometimes Devon feels in the mood for a tasty treat!!! Wow! Just look at this yummy cookie!!! Enjoy, Devon!! You earned it!

For anyone living in London, Ontario - Devon and I plan on continuing with our busking for the next few Saturdays, so please drop by and say hello!  We will be busking between 11am and noon!

I hope that this story inspires people to realize how easy it is to have fun... share talent... and help others in need!  Be inspired! Be the change!