Air guitar is a family, we talk about that all the time. And when something bad happens to our family, we step in to help. But air guitarists have a history of helping others, outside the family, as well - and I don't just mean in the sense that air guitar, as a sport, works towards world peace (because when you're holding an air guitar, you can't be holding a gun). For starters, the Nashville and Portland qualifiers this year donated their proceeds to charity, and there have been air guitar hospital visits to entertain sick kids.
This weekend, anyone who follows Nordic Thunder on social media sites found out that he and Cannonballmavin had a flood in their apartment. Their friends, air guitar and not, immediately offered help. But Nordic brought up a very good point: people in Colorado are suffering much worse from flooding, and our efforts should perhaps be directed there.
I'll just pause for a second while you think about what a top-notch human being Nordic Thunder is.
Ok. Now that we're back, let's talk about the Colorado flooding.
- a 4500-square-mile section of the state was affected - about half the size of the entire state of Massachusetts!
- stalled heavy rains - more in 6 days than they usually get in a year - caused rivers to burst their banks and floodwaters to cover towns.
- over 19000 homes, in 14 counties, have been damaged, with 1500 homes being destroyed.
- over 500 people are currently unaccounted for. The death toll currently stands at 8, but may rise as floodwaters recede.
Highway 34 towards Estes Park, CO.
Dennis Pierce/Colorado Heli-Ops via Associated Press
People have lost their homes and their livelihoods, and recovery is going to be difficult. Flooding brings its attendant problems of waterborne disease, dangerous travel (washed out bridges, etc), and mudslides. There are people and organizations helping, and they need all the help we can give.
So. How does this tie in with air guitar? Well, apart from the fact that we're good people who want to help, air guitar is strong in Colorado! Big Rig and Dreamcatcher, Diane Cletus, Dick Diesel, and the inimitable, the heroic, the legendary... Magic Cyclops - all Colorado residents and past winners in Denver competitions. Nationals were in Denver in 2012; I realize that Denver is not a badly affected area, but we went on a brewery tour out to other parts of the state and covered a lot of ground, and I feel like the state of Colorado welcomed us, perhaps ill-advisedly considering our level of drunken ridiculousness (and smelliness), with open arms. So I think we should now turn around and help them in return.
So what should we do?
Well, that's where you come in, air guitar family! We have a lot of options. We could create a fundraising page online (there are lots of sites that provide this service; I used to work for one of them) and just collect donations from the people we know - as a group, we have a wide reach! We could also look into doing benefit shows/non-official competitions, donating the proceeds from the door... or something else. What do you think? How can we help? Do you have some other ideas?
Home being dragged into the South Platte River
Joshua Polson/The Greeley Tribune via Associated Press