How “JaBig’s $25 000 DJ Marathon Fundraiser for Montreal’s Hungry School Kids” Came About

It’s not everyday that a piece of information completely catches me off-guard and utterly leaves me speechless and wondering whether I am an idiot or not…

Let’s start at the beginning to shed some light, shall we?

As you know (after a year yapping about it!) I am gearing up for a Big Journey unlike others: to drive around the world DJing in every country to fight child hunger worldwide.

Most people, including me it turns out, think that it’s only in developing countries that some children go to bed hungry at night because their parents or caretakers do not have enough to provide for them.

Wrong!

Robbie Pesut, the owner of Globe, one of the trendy spots I regularly DJ at, revealed to me — while I was sharing with him my world tour plans and the mission behind it — that his business ventures also support an agency that provides school meals to children whose parents cannot afford to properly feed them. And, these are not kids a few continents away but in Montreal!

That’s the piece of reality check that left me speechless in shock and embarrassment in perfect measures.

I was initially planning one $25 000 fundraiser DJ marathon in Montreal to benefit United Nations World Food Programme in their school meals projects that would be able to feed 100 000 children in developing nations (this was pushed to May 2011).

But I decided to support Montreal my hometown, first. I have lived and traveled in many cities and Montreal has been the best home for me, yes even with the brutal winters!

Just in case the message has not been heard loud and clear, here goes again: I believe that NO human being, especially a child, should go to bed hungry at night because she or he does not enough to eat. And that includes a child in Montreal, a city in a G8 country!

Silvana Pesut, a senior Globe exec put me in touch with Valérie Morquette, the communications coordinator at Le Garde-Manger Pour Tous which is a Montreal organisation that produces 3000 HOT & BALANCED meals per school day, which amounts to HALF A MILLION meals every year for children mostly from disadvantaged backgrounds in Montreal.

On a minus 30 degrees (Celsius) day (Yes, I never forget freezing cold days!), I met with Ms Morquette to expose her my plan to raise $25 000 in a single week month for her organisation and that’s how the JaBig’s $25 000 DJ Marathon Fundraiser for Montreal’s Hungry School Kids, on Monday 21st March until Sunday 28th March 2011** Sunday 27th March  until Wednesday 27th April came about.

Check it out on Facebook as details are still panned out. To show your support please RSVP “Attending”. This does not imply your physical presence but your seal of approval.

** The dates were shifted around due to scheduling conflicts related to professional engagements that I had to fulfill since they were booked a few months prior.