A4DA - Advocates for Drug & Alcohol Awareness
Founded by: Chris & Marilyn Spendley
Marilyn and I founded this organization in order to motivate us, encourage us to share our own thoughts, and share our story about the battle our family faced as a member of our family was in pain. Although we have been distracted over the past few years, we have achieved some significant results:
1) Sponsored a Concert on the campus of St. Joe’s University with stories and messages shared about drug and alcohol use (approximately 150 students attended)
2) Sponsored a Concert on the Campus of Duke University with a similar theme as St. Joe’s (approximately 300 students attended)
3) Sponsored a song writing contest where students at Duke University, wrote songs specific to drug and alcohol use. We had 3 songs submitted, each very powerful and poignant as to their message. The songs were sung at the concert on Duke’s campus. As a side note, the winner of that song contest, has gone on to form a very successful band called Delta Rae. They tour across the United States, have been guests on David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon. Their website is www.deltarae.com.
4) I have written (with the help of a professional songwriter) my own song, that tells my own story. It is called Forever Hold My Son. I have had the song produced and sung by a professional musician as well as the song being played at both concerts by Brad Corrigan and Erik Balkey. Brad was a lead singer for an extremely popular band called Dispatch. Dispatch sold out Madison Square Garden for 3 consecutive nights on 2007. After a brief breakup, the band is back together and Dispatch is one of the most popular bands touring the USA.
5) Our organization, A4DA has raised over $100,000 in contributions. We originally intended to use these funds to sponsor concerts and events on college campuses. We are reevaluating these opportunities to decide the best way to reach out to young adults.
Our experiences over the years with this organization have been very fulfilling. We have received emails from students that attended the concerts, thanking us for sharing our story and saying that they appreciated what we were trying to accomplish.
In fact a couple of years ago, I was standing in line for a new iPhone (yes I am a super apple geek and I love standing in line for new products) and a young person was behind me in line with his Dad. After being in line for an hour or so, the young man asked me If I was the person that sponsored the concert at Duke and wrote the song Forever Hold my Son. After proudly responding yes we talked for several hours about the concert and how much he enjoyed the music and the message. That day was very fulfilling - I was the proud owner of the newest iPhone and a college student took the time to tell me how he had enjoyed the concert and the messages that we had shared.
As a final note, one might ask my fascination with music and song writing. The answer is very simple - song writing allows you to tell a story in a very creative manner with emotion and most importantly the story can be easily repeated and (if the song is good enough) does not get stale or boring. Hopefully if you listen to Forever Hold my Son you don’t get bored, you hear the message and you get a sense of the love and commitment that is the integral part of that song.
Using the menu to the right you can access the following:
A) A4DA @ St. Joe’s - You can click on the video and listen to my talk to the Students at St. Joe’s as I tell my story and the message of Forever Hold my Son. You can also click on the video to the right to listen to the song played in concert for the first time (at St. Joe’s).
B) Video - Forever Hold my Son - If you click on the video on this page you can see a slideshow tribute done to the words of Forever Hold my Son. It is personally one of the most favorite things I have ever put together. Although it is extremely personal I think you will enjoy the slideshow as well.
C) Words to Forever Hold your Son - if anyone wanted to read the words to the song, I have posted them on this page.