This past weekend I volunteered at the Life is good® festival in Canton Massachusetts. What an experience! Being an employee for the company for over 5 years now, I am a little ashamed to say that this was my first, first of many to come, festival. Life is good holds a festival every year to benefit the Life is good® Playmakers and from what I saw and experienced on Sunday these huge fundraising events are more of a celebration of joy and optimism all in the name of helping kids. My task, as photographer, was to wander the grounds and capture performances, people having a good time, smiles and just the spirit of the festival. There was no shortage of any of those. I’ll share a few images below and give more insight into what this festival was all about.
Bert and John Jacobs, co-founders of Life is good®, are a huge part of the company still, and were seen everywhere interacting with volunteers, festival goers, signing books and giving high fives to anyone. I overheard a conversation that John, pictured above, was having with a family and the mother said she remember when they were selling their tee shirts out of their van in Boston. Unless you knew who they were you would think they were just another festival goer. A smile never left their faces
There was face-painting, games, obsticle courses, seed spitting, and a whole ton of fun activities for kids young and old. These were positioned between two stages where acts like Ryan Montbleau, Maceo Parker and headlining on Sunday was Ray LaMontagne. Those were just a few acts on Sunday. Now this was a two day event with over 20 bands, so there was many others on Saturday that I missed, such as Ingrid Michelson, Michael Franti and Spearhead, and The Avett Brothers. Wishing I could have attended both days, but a friends wedding came first.
In addition to the rocking music that you could hear all day they had a special stage dedicated to kids where they had widely know kids artists perform for families. A unique experience for a music festival. The fact that 100% of the proceeds when to the Life is good® Playmakers shows their passion for providing joy to kids. The Kids Foundation is the funding for the Life is good® Playmakers whose mission is
Life is good Playmakers help kids overcome life-threatening challenges such as violence, illness and extreme poverty. We do so by using the power of joyful play to heal and strengthen children.
A unique and uplifting look at today’s challenges that face kids. Steve Gross, Chief Playmaker, was there and I got a chance to quickly say hi during his warmup game of catch before the gates opened. Just another example of how this company runs.
I am completely attached to the passion and purpose of this company and honestly feel like I am doing some good when I go to work everyday. I met some great people this weekend that I have only conversed with through email or on the phone and it was even better to meet them in person, everyone has that same passion. I think I have found my soul-job, it fits with my passions and personality and I have felt that since the day I started working there. I am glad I was able to provide more of my skills, as a photographer, to help out.
The goal for the weekend was to raise $1 million for the kids foundation and we did it! Everyone who volunteered and donated should feel proud to be apart of this tremendous accomplishment. I wonder what next year’s goal is going to be? What ever it is I will be ther for both days and will fundraise before I go. The images I took were used for social media and you can see them on the Life is good facebook page in the “Life is good Festival 2011 – Day 2” album. There are a few that are not mine but the majority are. Take a look and don’t forget to “Like” the page.
I will leave you with some more images that I took. Hopefully you will consider donating to this great cause. Do so here or be a volunteer next year at the festival, it will give you a new lease on life. It did for me anyway. Enjoy!
