Frank Giaramita
02/28/06, 01:12 PM
I know this is long, but read it and consider donating!
My name is Richard Allen and my friends and I own and operate an all ages, non-profit music venue in Huntington, WV named HYAMP (The Huntington Youth Arts and Music Project, www.hyamp.org). We're volunteer based and have been open since April 2004 and have had over 300 bands play (Underoath, Halifax, As I Lay Dying, The Juliana Theory, Throwdown, Silverstein, Hawthorne Heights, Sullivan, Blindside, Agnostic Front, Ten Foot Pole, Sick of It All, The Gamits, Strike Anywhere, The Rocket Summer, Cartel, etc etc etc) in our short existence. We're WV's only all ages venue and the 3rd largest venue in WV not counting the civic centers, etc. We strive to bring shows to WV and bands that have never been here and do it all for the teenagers in the tri-state area and farther (people from NC, KY, OH, etc all come to our shows). We started Hyamp as a n alternative to the bars that litter WV and to give a safe outlet for teenagers to enjoy music without being sterotyped and while feeling safe and having a good time. Bands seem to love the venue and we have an amazing fan base that attend every show we host. We're in dire need of donations at the moment, the state of WV has never been big on bringing music here, much less Alternative music and basically refuse to grant us any money, we have stayed alive this whole time by hosting as many shows as possible or paying out of our own pockets. We're asking for donations now, and below is the reason why:
So if you were at the shows this past weekend you probabaly know about our run in with the fire marshall and how he was not very pleased. He is coming tomorrow to re-evaluate our building and tell us what we need to do to raise capacity, but we have one big problem: If we don't have a fully working fire alarm system we cannot raise capacity over 300 EVER, which would mean no more big hardcore shows or big bands coming to this area at all (300 would be cutting our capacity by over half of what it has been), we'd have to stick to much smaller bands and not hold shows like Armor for Sleep, Underoath, As I Lay Dying, Throwdown, Starting Line, Juliana Theory, etc ever again. He could completely shut us down until we get the fire alarm system, but as of yet he hasn't threatened us with that, and hoepfully it doesn't come to that.
In order to get this fire alarm system though we need $3,500 up front, they won't let us pay on a payment plan. So we're sending a call to help from EVERYBODY that can. We have a paypal donation link on our main page and using it you can donate to us with Credit Card, Debit Card or Paypal accounts, you don't have to be a Paypal member to use it either. You can donate $1, $5, $10, $100, anything you want. Every little bit helps and we appreciate all the amazing support you guys continue to give us. We want to give you the best venue we can possibly give you, and to bring the best shows to town and provide a safe alternative to the bars in this area and knowing how much it means to you all really makes us feel good about what we're doing. Thank you again, if you can't donate that's fine, thanks for reading and please pass this infomation around.
The donation link is in the lower right corner of our main page: http://www.hyamp.org. Thank you!!
My name is Richard Allen and my friends and I own and operate an all ages, non-profit music venue in Huntington, WV named HYAMP (The Huntington Youth Arts and Music Project, www.hyamp.org). We're volunteer based and have been open since April 2004 and have had over 300 bands play (Underoath, Halifax, As I Lay Dying, The Juliana Theory, Throwdown, Silverstein, Hawthorne Heights, Sullivan, Blindside, Agnostic Front, Ten Foot Pole, Sick of It All, The Gamits, Strike Anywhere, The Rocket Summer, Cartel, etc etc etc) in our short existence. We're WV's only all ages venue and the 3rd largest venue in WV not counting the civic centers, etc. We strive to bring shows to WV and bands that have never been here and do it all for the teenagers in the tri-state area and farther (people from NC, KY, OH, etc all come to our shows). We started Hyamp as a n alternative to the bars that litter WV and to give a safe outlet for teenagers to enjoy music without being sterotyped and while feeling safe and having a good time. Bands seem to love the venue and we have an amazing fan base that attend every show we host. We're in dire need of donations at the moment, the state of WV has never been big on bringing music here, much less Alternative music and basically refuse to grant us any money, we have stayed alive this whole time by hosting as many shows as possible or paying out of our own pockets. We're asking for donations now, and below is the reason why:
So if you were at the shows this past weekend you probabaly know about our run in with the fire marshall and how he was not very pleased. He is coming tomorrow to re-evaluate our building and tell us what we need to do to raise capacity, but we have one big problem: If we don't have a fully working fire alarm system we cannot raise capacity over 300 EVER, which would mean no more big hardcore shows or big bands coming to this area at all (300 would be cutting our capacity by over half of what it has been), we'd have to stick to much smaller bands and not hold shows like Armor for Sleep, Underoath, As I Lay Dying, Throwdown, Starting Line, Juliana Theory, etc ever again. He could completely shut us down until we get the fire alarm system, but as of yet he hasn't threatened us with that, and hoepfully it doesn't come to that.
In order to get this fire alarm system though we need $3,500 up front, they won't let us pay on a payment plan. So we're sending a call to help from EVERYBODY that can. We have a paypal donation link on our main page and using it you can donate to us with Credit Card, Debit Card or Paypal accounts, you don't have to be a Paypal member to use it either. You can donate $1, $5, $10, $100, anything you want. Every little bit helps and we appreciate all the amazing support you guys continue to give us. We want to give you the best venue we can possibly give you, and to bring the best shows to town and provide a safe alternative to the bars in this area and knowing how much it means to you all really makes us feel good about what we're doing. Thank you again, if you can't donate that's fine, thanks for reading and please pass this infomation around.
The donation link is in the lower right corner of our main page: http://www.hyamp.org. Thank you!!