Operation: Sound Off! Needs Votes For Pepsi Refresh Grant To Support Our Troops’ Musical Dreams
1,232 Projects Competing In The Arts and Culture Category And Votes Are Needed To Win Grant
Nashville, TN / August 10, 2010 – Conceived and developed by Artists4Artists partners Robert Reynolds (Grammy Award winning founder of The Mavericks) and Scotty Huff (prolific music producer and arranger), Operation Sound Off! (OSO) has generated its first lead to obtain crucial funding through the Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsi is giving away millions each month to fund refreshing ideas that change the world. The ideas with the most votes in featured categories will receive grants of all sizes and Pepsi is looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. Voting is open for the entire month of August and finalists competing in the August grant cycle will be announced on September 1, 2010. Pepsi is making $1,300,000 available to fund winning projects and OSO has applied for a $250,000 grant.
To give back to the men and women of our armed forces, who have sacrificed so much, including their own musical aspirations, the Operation: Sound Off! project will provide music-recording opportunities to active and veteran military personnel with musical interests, in an effort to facilitate rehabilitation, reintegration, and give them an opportunity to tell their story through their music. This includes time in full-service recording facilities, with professional recording engineers, music producers, and accompaniment by world-class musicians. The project will culminate in an ongoing series of “best of” albums, concert tours and episodic television production.
“It is our dream that the resulting music derived from this ongoing project will be an inspiration to other servicemen and servicewomen, and to the rest of the world,” says Huff.
Inspired by the recent increase in the number of servicemen and servicewomen returning from combat duties overseas, OSO was created to allow the healing powers of music to help those dealing with issues like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, physical injuries and even the struggles faced by the families of these heroes. There are many men and women serving, and who have served, in the United States Armed Forces who have put their musical dreams on hold in order to protect our very freedom to dream. Whether this program simply gives these men and women a deserved break from the labors of military service, or helps launch the musical career of an honored veteran, OSO believes this effort will benefit thousands of deserving Americans.
“These are the very men and women who've defended my freedom and my right to dream, which has allowed me to achieve so much with The Mavericks,” says Reynolds. “Now it’s our turn to provide them the same opportunities."
Go to www.refresheverything.com/operationsoundoff to learn about the project, register and vote. Users can also find widgets to embed on websites or blogs and links for Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other social networking sites to further support.
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Media Contact:
Nicole Pope Gaia
Entertainment Publicity
nicolepopegaia@gmail.com / 615.517.1960
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