A Christmas song and fundraiser...yipee!!

Exciting news here today, and for a few reasons!

What We're Doing: 

• I've just recordered "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas!"  This has been one of my favorite Holiday songs ever since I was little. It's been covered by some of the finest musicians of all time and done in a wide variety of styles and genres. I tried to make this version my own.  I hope you enjoy! 
• All the proceeds to this song are going to families affected by hurricane Sandy in need of "Sub-for-Santa" help this Holiday season. I am in touch with the community liaison in Staten Island who has a list of families for me. The more money we raise, the more families we can help! I'll be posting pleanty of photos and follow up stories on this blog so, so be sure to follow (here)!

 Why We're Doing It: 

• We're raising funds to help families who lost nearly everything during and shortly after hurricane Sandy. When my husband and I first drove into these devastated neighborhoods and communities with the humanitarian group, "Mormon Helping Hands," I was so moved, I felt I could almost cry. While the storm happened weeks ago and hardly affected me personally at all, it was hard to believe that not too far distant there were people who had lost nearly everything and who were still struggling to get their lives back together. The scenery felt so unfamiliar, almost as though we were in another country entirely. I had the opportunity to go back on Friday (just a few days ago) with the same humanitarian group, and I was honestly surprised to find that the roads were still covered in dirt and filled with piles of garbage, thrown out sofas, broken up dry wall, etc. The stench inside the home we went into was almost more than I could bare. Most of the homes were flooded with several feet of water, and as a result, there was now mold growing everywhere, nestled into every nook and cranny. The woman we helped on Friday said that she was sleeping temporarily on a plastic garbage bag on top of her soaking wet sofa. Not only does this sound miserable to sleep on a wet sofa, but her power didn't get turned back on until just a few days ago. Many still don't have hot water either! The thought of taking a cold shower in the winter is chilling. Although I was able to return home to my warm and well lit apartment, the images of these homes were haunting, and I decided I wanted to try to do something more to help. This is where you come in...

 How You Can Help:

• It's pretty simple. Just download "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" by going here:
• Once you're on the bandcamp webpage, click on "Buy Now"
• Follow the steps from there to purchase the song for $1 or make a donation and...there you have it!

 Also...

• For the first 200 people who purchase the song you can get a FREE download code to give to someone else as a gift!! Once you have purchased the song-  either leave a comment with your email address or email me directly at biancamerkleymusic@gmail.com and I personally will email you a free download code that you can then give someone as a gift! SO HURRY! You don't want to miss that! (By the way, I'll write another post with greater detail on how to do this by Wednesday)

Print a Download card!

We also also have come up with an amazing idea you can give to your neighbor or someone in need of warming up this holiday season with hot chocolate. You can see the tutorial on howdoesshe.com (here) And get this...we're giving away a free printable (go here to download)
 

A Special Thank You:

I owe a huge THANK YOU to Randy Bergida for arranging, producing and engineering this project! He donated his time so that all the proceeds of this fundraiser could go toward the "Sub-for-Santa" fund.

Also, thank you to Jamie Bendell and Amy Vachal for singing back up vocals with me- you all are amazing! I'm so grateful to know and work with such talented people.

Thank you to How Does She and Weeds to Wishes for their support and sharing this on their sites.

Please spread the word- tweet, facebook, email, pin it- do all you can to help raise the funds for families in need this Holiday Season!
Let's see how many families we can touch!

 May your hearts be light. 
Xo,
 Bianca