Christmas CD by Island artists raising money for food bank

A new Christmas CD by Island musicians has been launchedas a fundraiser for the Upper Room Food Bank.

It's called the 12 Songs Of Christmas, and features mostly new, original Christmas songs written for the project.

Laurie Brinklow,the project co-ordinatorand one of the contributors, said the idea for the CD came up last winter, when she was sitting witha group of friends around her table.

"Once I said, 'I`ve written a Christmas song,' other people said 'I've written a Christmas song,' or 'I`d like to write a Christmas song,' she remembered. "Well, let's make a CD."

That seemed like a good idea, but then they needed a plan for it.

"I was thinking about, well what can we do with it?" said Brinklow. "Make it a fundraiser for the food bank," was the answer. "At Christmas time the need is so there. Food and music go together."

In addition to Brinklow, the collection features musicians and writers Mike Mooney, Chris Corrigan, Margie Carmichael, Sean Kemp, Sean Mooney, Sandy Kowalik, Tian Wigmore, Chas Guay, Mike and Wendy Stratton, Roger Greaves and Laurel Smyth, Jill McRaeand Adam Gallant.

This is the first time a fundraiser of this type has been done for the Upper Room Food Bank, and all of the proceeds of the $15 discs will go to the charity.

The general manager of the food bank, Mike MacDonald, says although lots of people donate food this time ofyear, extra money goes a long way too.

"We have every bill that a small business has really," MacDonald explained. "One of our biggest bills is paying for food. We also operate a soup kitchen and all the expenses that are incurred there with Maritime Electric and our phone bills and everything so the financial donations are important as well."

The CD's are available at various stores around Charlottetown and Stratford, including Wendy's and Tim Hortons.

Several of the musicians will also be performing on Saturday at Back Alley Music from one p.m. to four p.m., a CD release show as part of the store's Soupy Saturday series.