Help Child Safe Save Children at The Loving Touch Sunday Night

The subject of foster care is near and dear to my heart. My sister and her husband have been taking in foster children and welcoming them into their family for approximately 10 years now. Over that time, my family has had the privilege of meeting numerous remarkable children, each with their own story. What it comes down to is that all kids just want to be loved and every child deserves the chance to live a happy life. You can't help but to love every one of these children that you cross paths with and to want to help them.

Every year, thousands of children are placed into foster care in Michigan. Some are put in these temporary homes because of abuse or neglect, while others sometimes find themselves alone after the loss of their parents. Unfortunately, the first group is much more common than the latter. There are many organizations that help these children by finding them safe, healthy homes to live in. There are public entities, such as state and municipal departments. Then, there are private organizations.

One such local organization is called Child Safe Michigan. Located in Madison Heights, this group's goal is to place neglected and abused in safe and loving families. They have been helping hundreds of kids every year since 2006.

This Sunday, August 10th there is a show at The Loving Touch benefiting Child Safe Michigan. The show is being put on by a guy named Chris Beasley and 100% of the proceeds will go right to this organization. When I first heard about the show, I was really excited about it! It is not common to see a lot of  benefits and fundraisers supporting this cause. I was also interested in finding out Chris' story and what sparked his interest in helping a foster care group. It turns out, he is just a great guy with a big heart.

HID- Why did you decide to put on a show benefiting foster kids?
Chris- "I really wanted to do something different with my summer this year. I held a very similar charity event last year at The Loving Touch which was all affiliated with team in training and money I had to raise for the marathon I was training for at the time. Everyone does cancer though. I'm not saying they don't need all the donations they can get to further research, but I just wanted something different. I lost a parent at a young age and could never image growing up in a world without any parents, being sent from foster family to foster family. That's why all of the money will be donated to Child Safe Michigan for them to use on any up coming events and with the new school year coming around, I know they could use all the help they can get for school supplies."

HID- Tell us about Child Safe. Why did you decide to work with them?
Chris- "Child Safe is a non-profit foster care and adoption agency based out of Madison Heights. To be honest, I did not know they existed before deciding I wanted to donate to some type of foster care. I originally searched around Detroit for foster homes, but failed in finding anything but social service offices. I finally started asking around to people I work with and Facebook and finally became flooded with different organizations. Child Safe really stuck out to me, they are a young company that just started there foster care in 2006 and seem to be doing very well at it. One of my former co-workers has even gone through them and had nothing but great things to say. Everything about this organization just clicked that they really could use this donation."

HID- Why did you choose the bands you did to play this show?
Chris- "All of the bands I have playing with the exception of After Dark Amusement Park are friends of mine that are doing great things with their music. I really enjoy the music that my friends make and usually go to their shows anyways, so I figured why not get them all on the same show and for a great cause which they are all thrilled to be a part of. Adam in Moon Lake suggested adding After Dark to the line up when at one point I fell short of a full line up and after listening to them and hearing nothing but great things about their live performances, [I] knew they'd be a great fit."

HID- Why should people head out to The Loving Touch on Sunday?
Chris- "Oh man, here's my selling point. You know when I was younger my favorite thing about going to local shows was seeing a bunch of bands for not very much money. This show being only $5 to see 8 great local up and coming bands is a rarity in today's music scene. Most importantly though, even if none of these bands interest you it's for the kids, and that's what that is what matters. So come out, have a beer and just enjoy your Sunday night before the week starts back up."

HID- Anything else you would like our readers to know?
Chris- "I plan on doing more events for different types of charities. This has been a great time planning and putting everything together working with great people like Chris Johnston who handles the booking at The Loving Touch. If any of the readers have any charity suggestions or even bands they know would want to play an event, I'm always listening and looking to help anyway I can. My e-mail is Beascause@gmail.com."

As Chris mentioned, Sunday's benefit show will feature 8 great bands. The lineup includes, Like Lavender, Due North, Matt Wixson's Flying Circus, Notes & Leaves, Boogie Knights, After Dark Amusement Park, Moon Lake and our favorite DJ, Christopher Jarvis aka Ancient Language, will be doing sets between bands. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and $5 will get you in. And in case you haven't figured it out, this money goes to a great cause; kids that really need help. For more information on Sunday's event, click here. For details on Child Safe Michigan, visit the organization's website here.

~C