With chapters in New York, Philadelphia, Nashville and Miami, Musicians on Call bring live and recorded music to the bedsides of healthcare facilities. This helps complement the healing process for patients, families and caregivers. This is provided in a number of ways.

Bedside Performance Program

Volunteer artists give live performances in-room for patients that are too ill to leave their beds. To date, Musicians on Call have played for more than 150,000 individuals and their families. They also have 32 regular scheduled weekly performances at 27 facilities throughout the four cities they currently cover.

CD Pharmacy Program

Musicians on Call also provide hospitals with complete CD libraries, as well as personal CD players for the patients to use – all free of charge. Thanks to this, there are currently 310 CD Pharmacies throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and Dublin in Ireland.

Project Playback Program

As well as the volunteer artists who help Musicians on Call achieve their aim, the charity also has a program that gives patients the chance to have their own music recorded and produced. By using special software, patients can compose their own songs and work with volunteer professionals – artists, producers and more – and get help in the writing an recording process.

View from House Tojosan

Music has been a part of my life from my earliest years.  My parents used music to help get me to sleep. Memories of joy were highlighted by those where I sang along with the music surrounding me. Still today I enjoy this.

Music makes a long drive short, a tough bit of programming less challenging, and a sour mood not quite so sad.  I’ve already thought about music I’d like played at my funeral.  This charity makes me mindful how I’d miss music if I was stuck in the hospital with illness or old age.

Take time out to visit Musicians on Call. Your donation will bring peace, joy and remembrance to someone stuck alone in a hospital bed.

Today I’ve signed up as a blogger to support 12for12k and it’s charity work. 12for12K is touting and supporting one charity a month for 12 months with the goal of raising $12K for each charity within that month. The trick is to do it using the web, and especially social networking and social media.

Over to the right you’ll see a badge. Currently the badge is a static one and not customized to fit the blog’s theme. That’s going to get fixed soon though.

12for12K has opened a bloggers’ resource center. The resource center provides for bloggers registering officially as participating, see how the charity system works, and to locate a badge for their blog. The folks behind it are offering to customize the blog badge to match your theme.

The resource page also spells out the value of registering and participating as well as how to properly connect your blog to the charity. Go check it out.

The April charity is Mom It Forward. I’ll be writing a post related to moms, my mom, or your mom; so watch out. It should be fun.

Considering joining in 12for12k and turning your social networking time towards a charity bent for a while.

Yours,
Todd/@tojosan

Gary Vaynerchuk, our favorite everymans’ wine guru, has put a challenge to Kevin Rose of Digg.

How far would you go for charity?