Random Acts of Christmas - Day 4 | Playing Music on the Street to R...

Wow, I can’t believe we are on Day 4 already! Today’s Random Act of Christmas was probably the most FUN because I was able to enlist one of my friends to join me. I think getting others involved is a great way to increase the potential impact and create a cool bonding moment between friends.

Day 4 – Playing Music on the Street to Raise Money for the Food Bank

Another reason I say today was so much fun is because it involved playing music! My friend Jes and I love to hang out, play our ukulele’s, and nerd out on harmonies. She recently recorded a song with me for open mic, but that was a HUGE step for her because we had never recorded ourselves singing before. (She gets super shy/nervous) When I first asked her if she wanted to do this with me she said “No way!”. But as a good friend, I pushed her to get out of our comfort zone and give it a try! This was our first time playing “in public” and it was a great experience! We did stop by my apartment to throw back a little “liquid courage” first though. :)

It was freezing (literally) and so we only lasted about an hour. We setup outside of an organic/all natural grocery store (I’m a total regular there) and put a sign on our ukulele case saying that all proceeds go to support the foodbank. Part of why we picked this spot is because the clientele that goes there tends to be very community driven and this grocery store is very supportive of musicians playing outside. We didn’t really practice much before heading out, we simply printed off a ton of Christmas carols and winged it.

I’m a nerd and insisted we wear Santa hats!

I thought that since we were playing for such a short period of time – we may only raise a few bucks. I was shocked at the end to find that we actually raised $30! I know that may not seem like much, but that should buy a few bags of groceries for someone this Christmas.

What I thought was SUPER interesting, is that even though we had a sign saying all proceeds would go to the foodbank, I don’t think anyone really saw it. It’s funny how people would rush up, throw in a dollar or two, and then rush off. This was actually encouraging to me because it meant people were dropping money because they actually enjoyed our music!

It definitely feels a little vulnerable to play in public for the first time, so it was nice to get that confirmation that we don’t totally suck. It’s also very possible they just felt bad for us too since it was so cold out.

I think we are going to do this again next year – but be a little bit more intentional. We talked about actually taking an entire day off work, and going around to different spots all day trying to raise money. If we made bigger/better signs that made it super obvious that we were trying to raise money for charity – I think we could easily raise $500 in a day if we played in busy spots. Now that we have broken the ice with playing in public, I think it will be even easier next time.

What’s really special is that we have both personally volunteered at the local food bank and know the director quite well. She has no idea we did this, and even though it was only $30, we can’t wait to walk in and hand it to her!

Total Cost of this Random Act of Christmas: $0 – In fact, we raised $30.

Thanks for following along during my week of kindness. I hope this series encourages you to think about how you could make a positive difference in the lives of those around you. I can’t wait to share tomorrow’s Random Act of Christmas with you! Until then, peace and love my friends.

If you decide to join in and do a random act of christmas, please use the “randomactsofchristmas” tag so that I can find your post and stop by to give you some encouragement and love! Also, be sure to check out and support @lyndsaybowes initiative Operation Human Angels and @hendrix22’s #thegoodnews tag. They are both doing amazing things to encourage good will and kindness. Not to mention, operation human angels is what inspired this whole series!