Covers For The Cause: Winner spotlight

July 16, 2018
4 min read

Charitable Impact

Little Crow

Little Crow was recently announced the winner of the 2018 Covers For The Cause campaign run by Music Heals and powered by Charitable Impact. Which means the band will be playing SKOOKUM festival in September. The campaign raised over $17,000 for music therapy services across Canada, with Little Crow and their fans helping to raise $6,680 of that total.  We caught up with Kas and Emily to talk about charity, music, and why they have chosen to send their funds raised to GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre.

“We are so thankful for all the support we have been so fortunate to receive, it feels incredibly rewarding to be able to have a platform to give back.” Emily is keen to share her thinking behind the importance of charitable giving. She continues, “No-one makes it on their own, and in this thought, coming together to support charities helps provide much needed funding to such important services and programs like music therapy.”

For Kas, supporting GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre is deeply personal. He explains, “By the time I was 18, I had accumulated quite a lot of head trauma. Most self inflicted as a copy mechanism to deal with the deep depression that I was lost in, others from sports and concerts.” He takes a deep breath, “I was part of GF Strong’s acquired brain injury outpatient program for 6 months. I was so fortunate to have a whole team of incredible people helping me focus and retrain my brain to process information.” Kas concludes with focus, “GF Strong gave me the tools to move forward and succeed despite these factors. It was after my head trauma that I found music to be the only way I could truly express myself and relieve my inner tensions.”

Emily goes on to reveal, “We can both say that music has quite literally saved our lives.” She continues, opening up a dialogue surrounding the importance of creating communities and sharing personal experiences with fans:  “Being vulnerable with our music forces conversations about mental health, and that is something we try to talk about at every single show. Our hope is to always connect with other people, because it’s so easy to feel alone and lost in those thoughts. Music is something that connects people in such a beautiful way, and it is something we both personally rely on.”

Indeed, Little Crow’s lyrics call loudly to those who have ever battled with their own mental health, and Emily considers the process behind this: “We both feel that a really important part of our writing is to be as vulnerable as possible. A lot of our writing is pulled from past and present struggles dealing with inner conflict and mental health.” She ends the point compassionately, “Often people are quiet about mental illnesses and it is a powerful feeling to be vulnerable and share those feelings with others that may feel the same.”

The band share their thoughts on the decline in giving across Canada. Kas ruminates, “People are so overwhelmed by information that they don’t know where to start.” Emily echoes one of Charitable Impact’s core beliefs – we all have something to give – in response: “We have been trying to counteract this by talking about Covers For The Cause and the importance of Music therapy on every stop of our 15 day tour across Western Canada.”

The pair are beyond excited to be contributing to a cause that resonates so strongly with each of them personally. They explain, “Music is something that has gotten us through our toughest times. Music therapy is such a valuable tool that reaches far beyond the borders of any single issue or trauma. Having the opportunity to raise money for something so impactful while being able to interact and hear some pretty amazing stories from fans and donors is an unbelievable experience.”

Emily concludes the interview with one final piece of advice to anyone wanting to get involved with charitable giving: “Educate yourself and be passionate about the charity and cause you are getting involved with.”

Charitable Impact would like to thank Little Crow for taking the time to chat with us about their charitable experiences, and their involvement with Covers For The Cause. If you would like to donate to GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre, or any other registered charity in Canada, you can do so here.

Does music play an important role in your life? Tweet us at @wearechimp #CoversForTheCause