Help us create our new album, and fund an important community program!

JD & the Sunshine Band is a unique collaboration between Sunshine House participants and local musicians. The program combines the arts, skills building, and recreational programming into a real, functioning band. This collaboration has resulted in the creation of the band's acclaimed first album, two music videos, and multiple requests to play musical gigs and festivals across the prairies!

What does your donation pay for? The band needs your help to record and produce their second album! Funds are needed to pay for production engineers, rehearsal space, recording facility rentals, equipment use, transportation, and the manufacturing of CDs. More than that, each step in the recording process, from writing lyrics, to the finished product, provides programming for Sunshine band participants! Every rehearsal, every recording, every session spent developing lyrics, is another day of programming at Sunshine House! Participants gain experience working with the band, benefit from the recreational opportunities it provides, and enjoy the fun, connective community environment.

NOTE: You can donate ANY AMOUNT by clicking the big orange 'Contribute' button at the top of the page! No donation is too small!

Listen to samples from our first album: http://www.transistor66.com/jd.htm

In the News:

Click here for the recent Global TV interview!

Click here for the West End Dumplings podcast interview!

Click here for last spring's Shaw TV interview!

Stretch Goals!

$8000, in addition to a seed grant provided by CNDC, will help us produce and distribute the album. Another $2000+ will allow the band to expand this latest endeavour, adding opportunities for more performances, more band-related activities (such as creating music videos), more community collaborations, more festivals, and most importantly, more hours of music programming at Sunshine House!

Find us on Social Media

JD & the Sunshine Band on Facebook & Twitter

Sunshine House on Facebook & Twitter

Sunshine House Website: http://sunshinehousewpg.org/

More about JD & the Sunshine Band

The Sunshine Band is a vessel for musical thoughts and creative ideas. Making music together has allowed the little intricacies of speech and communication to be given their proper due as unique and worthy pieces in a musical mosaic. Often borne out of a simple musical hook or melody, the songs are crafted to draw out the thoughts and ideas of the people on the streets of Winnipeg, those who are rarely considered in this type of collaborative process. Songs are structured with the intent of highlighting the things that are unique to the lives of the folks on the streets; these things provide the intangible and magical quality to the songs. For example, in writing the song "45 Minute Set" a song that provides advice to someone who might be going to the bar, we had a group discussion where we went one by one around the group and had people say things that they did/do at the bar. From, "Look sharp," to "Meet an ex," to "give our your number," everything went into the song, because it was structured melodically for people to speak, in their voice, their input for things to do at the bar. This is what has made the band appeal to folks from all over- the simplicity and the intangible.

Another song, "Headlines," acts as an ever-changing take on current affairs, and the day-to-day lives of the people in the band. The theme of this song changes depending on the crowd who we're playing for, the time of year. Themes have included "things that were just posted on Facebook" - where we used posts from people's facebook status updates; a principal's rant to his Junior High school when we performed for kids from General Wolfe School; the state of Sherbrook Street when we performed their festival. We have a repertoire of songs that can be changed depending on the time and place. This instills the sense of geography, place, current affairs in people's minds, and works as a simple directive for crafting stories.

Having regular in-house jams, where people can come up and sing with the band, and shake their home-made percussive instruments, is a way to keep the vibe strong. We have been slowly crafting percussive instruments out of more unlikely things- recycled syrup and bleach containers, champagne flutes. This inspires a sense of goofiness and irreverence that is the backbone to much of our programming at Sunshine House. It also serves as a good foundation for people to craft, paint and design pieces that will have a use on stage. This is just another element that will end up being displayed live at shows, in front of an audience that has no idea what will happen next.

About Sunshine House

Sunshine House first began as Kali Shiva AIDS Services in 1987. We have since grown and changed into an organization that focuses on social inclusion, harm reduction, and population health promotion. For more information about what we do, visit the 'About' section of our website here: http://sunshinehousewpg.org/about/

For more detailed information about our programming, visit our programs page:http://sunshinehousewpg.org/programs/

Charitable Tax Number: 134271261RR0001

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PERKS & TAX RECEIPTS: Tax receipts are available for your donation! A PDF receipt will be automatically emailed to you. You may notice the amount is slightly lower than what you donated; for tax purposes, we must deduct the base cost of your perk from your donation, so the net amount donated is accurately reflected on your receipt.

YOUR ADDRESS & PERSONAL INFO: When submitting your payment, you may be asked to provide your address for our records; this is so we know where to send your perk! Please do not skip this step, or we won't be able to send you this awesome thing we made you! You may also need to provide your address during the payment process; this is required for your tax receipt (also, your address might be required for verifying your credit card, as per usual with credit card transactions). The payment systems in use are 100% secure, and we will not use your address, email address, name, or any other information about you for any reason beyond what is needed to fulfill your transactiion.

QUESTIONS? If you have any questions about the band, Sunshine House, this fundraiser, your donation, your perks, or anything else relevant to this campaign,don't hesitate to email us at admin@sunshinehousewpg.org.

MEDIA: For interviews, please contact JD Ormond at thesunshinehouseband@gmail.com or call Sunshine House at 204-783-8565 and ask for JD.

This album recording is supported with an seed grant from the Central Neighbourhoods Development Corporation (CNDC). Thank you to CNDC for your support!

Thank you for supporting your community!

We do not pay anyone to do our fundraising (except for a small transaction fee for using Fundrazr), so all the funds we collect go directly into the album recording, the band program, and Sunshine House! Sunshine House operates with no core operational funding; that means we are completely dependant on one-time grants, and donations from great folks like you! Our amazing staff, volunteers, and participants work miracles on a shoe string to keep the doors open at Sunshine House, and to keep our programming going. We greatly appreciate your support! Thank you!