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Community Corner

Lost Voices Book Fair

Barnes & Noble Christmas Shopping Program Shines a Light of Hope for Troubled Boys And Girls


 


Ann Arbor, MI

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Numbers are an important part of anyone’s life. Phone numbers, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, all figure into everyday life for all of us. But here is a number that will give you a chance to rescue some children who really need your help: 10837987. That’s the number you can use to go Christmas shopping for Lost Voices through the Barnes & Noble Bookfair program.


Lost Voices is a Michigan nonprofit representing a group of songwriters and musicians founded by Erma Bombeck Award-winning humorist and folk singer Mike Ball. These performers have dedicated themselves to changing the lives of incarcerated and at-risk young men and women. “We sit down with children who are in trouble, most of them to the point that they are locked up, and we help them explore their feelings in music,” said Ball. “They write individual songs, and they write songs as a group. At the end of each workshop, the kids go on stage with us in a professional concert to perform their work for their peers, their teachers, and their families. The growth and healing we see on that stage, and even in the audience, is incredible!”

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Here’s how the Bookfair works; when you buy something in Barnes & Noble stores from December 14 through December 20, you simply give that magic number to the cashier, and a percentage of what you spend goes to help the folks at Lost Voices. The Book Fair is also available for online shoppers at BarnesAndNoble.com right through Christmas eve, from December 14 through December 24. When you check out online, you click a link that says "Check if this is a Bookfair Order" and enter the number.


The more people who shop the Bookfair for Lost Voices, the higher the percentage Barnes & Noble will donate, so anyone who wants to really help out can go a step further and spread the word (and the number) to all their friends, family, and strangers on the street.


To kick off the Bookfair, three of the Lost Voices artists will be performing free concerts in the Ann Arbor, Brighton and Northville Barnes & Noble stores on Friday, December 14 from 7 to 9 PM. Folk music legend Josh White, Jr. will be at the Northville store on Haggerty Road; award-winning Celtic singer/songwriter Kitty Donohoe will be in the Ann Arbor store on Washtenaw Avenue; and Mike Ball, along with Scott Clauser, Sharon Tse and John Finan, will be at the Brighton store at Green Oak Village Place.


At each of these concerts you can hear some of the music written by the kids in the Lost Voices program, and Lost Voices volunteers will pass out stickers and coupons for the Bookfair.


“Many of the kids we work with have done bad things,” said Ball, “and bad things have happened to them. At the end of the day, they are also children, who are really not all that different from your kids or mine. They deserve whatever help we can give them.”


The number 10837987 will do just that.

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