The Place To Be!

You already know the date: March 25. And now you know where to be on that date: Molotov Lounge on 719 West 6th St, Austin, TX 78701

Last year’s event was a great success, and we hope to make this year’s equally as good if not better.

AustinTwestival 2009 Global

As part of your Twestival entertainment, you’ll be awed by Sunni Brown and her graphic recording of the event. And come with your dancing shoes on; your hips won’t be able to resist moving just a little to the energetic sounds of “El Tule”. FInd them at http://www.myspace.com/eltule

Proceeds from this year’s event will benefit Concern Worldwide. Local organizers and volunteers are meeting as we speak to decide which focus of Concern Worldwide will receive our energies and your money.

Special thanks to Tim Hayden (@thetimhayden), Brad Womack and Christina Harrelson at Molotov and all of our volunteers for helping to bring us all together for this event. We can’t wait to see you there!

*The band is not confirmed yet, but as soon as they are, we will be promoting tickets. Expect news soon.

"A Big Texas Welcome!"

Your music has helped to inspire and shape Texans for decades. Put simply, you and your stories are part of what makes Texas great.

To do our part to make Texas great, we’re working with organizers and volunteers all over the world to bring Twestival to Austin on March 25. Twestival is a world-wide event which is working to raise funds and awareness for Concern Worldwide this year, a group focusing on educating the world’s children, particularly those who aren’t given access to any education at all.

Our hope is to make this year’s Twestival better than the last. We have big plans for the local event, and we have but one request of you: Join us!

We know your presence would allow us to reach a greater audience. And a single song from you and Trigger might even allow us to surpass our fund-raising goals for this worthy cause.

We’d love to see you there. Give it some thought. And call us!

Sincerely,
Twestival volunteers and fellow Texans

March your calendar! This year’s Twestival is slated for March 25, 2010!

Last year’s Twestival raised more than $750,000 for Charity: Water and other nonprofits all over the world.

In 2010, organizers and volunteers are turning the focus to education and the 72 million children in the world who aren’t getting an education for one reason or another. Organizers have selected Concern Worldwide to be the recipient of this year’s fundraising efforts because of their comprehensive and well-respected approach to education. This is an issue that involves many different elements; hunger, water, teacher training, building of schools, etc. Locally, we hope to harness the power of the global event and use social media to give people insight into this cause as well as raise much-needed funds.

Austin plans to make this year’s Twestival even better than the last!

So how you can you get involved? Volunteer. Buy your ticket (link to come) for this year’s event. And save your pennies to contribute to Concern Worldwide during an auction of Austin’s biggest names in social media, business and more!

I have to admit it. I am not a fan of the word “Twestival”. It reminds me of Festivus, the day of holiday grievances on Seinfeld as well as a delicious Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor they should have never discontinued. If it sounded like “Lallapalooza” or “Woodstock”, we might have an easier time.

Although Twestival has an odd name, it has a great cause which you should want to be a part of. Here are the top five reasons why you and your friends should join us at Buffalo Billiards for our benefit for Mobile Loaves and Fishes:
5.) If you are going to a tweetup, you might as well kill two birds with one stone and raise money by going too. Play a little pool while you are there.
4.) Twestival cities compare how much money they raise. Austin rocks in social media, but being on top is something that takes a lot of hard work.
3.) Wesley Faulkner and his team have been working hard to make this event fun and family friendly. Good times will be had by all and you won’t be disappointed.
2.) Mobile Loaves and Fishes is not some sort of vacation from a real world job for Alan Graham. The man is truly dedicated to serve the plight of the homeless here in Austin. He’s passionate and he cares about making a difference. Your money won’t go to some bureaucratic do-nothing non-profit–it’s going to provide food and comfort to citizens across Austin.
1.) Because you can and helping the homeless is the right thing to do! People shouldn’t go without food in this town. So let’s make this happen, folks!

RSVP here for the event on Sunday, September 13 from 1-5.

Austin Twestival tickets now available: http://tinyurl.com/l7d6ln

A family friendly event!

Sunday, September 13, 2009
1 - 5 pm

Buffalo Billiards
201 East 6th Street
Austin, TX 78701

Benefiting Mobile Loaves & Fishes

There will be an auction, door Prizes, a PS3, Wii, and XBox360, and much more!

Meet Peggy. We’re here to help Peggy and people like her off the streets and into a fulfilling life.
Peggy

We’ve helped Tony Carmona turn his life and heart around.
Tony

Who we are: Mobile Loaves & Fishes, Inc. (MLF) is a social outreach ministry for the homeless and indigent working poor. We were founded in 1998 as a ministry of St. John Neumann and became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2000.

What we do: Our mission is to provide food, clothing, and dignity to our brothers and sisters in need. We accomplish this mission through the use of 12 catering trucks that go out onto the city streets of Austin, San Antonio, New Orleans, Providence, and Nashville every night of the week, thanks to the hard work of our almost 10,000 volunteers and a single supply truck.

How we started: Six parishioners of Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Austin, TX founded Mobile Loaves & Fishes in the summer of 1998. The idea of using catering trucks to distribute food was planted by a conversation one of our founders had with a fellow parishioner, and the rest, as they say, is history. He shared his idea with the four original founders, and before they knew it both prayers and cash were being offered in support.

The sixth founder, formerly homeless himself, became the founder’s guide to the streets, and they began distributing 75 sack lunches a day to test their resolve in fulfilling God’s call. The first trip was in September of 1988, and by December of that year there was enough money to purchase a 1997 Ford F-250 pick-up truck with a catering bed.

April 1999 was the first full month of scheduled operations; there were seven teams each committing to one night per month. In May 1999 the truck was debuted to St. John Neumann Catholic community, and over 150 volunteers from the parish signed up to serve. Soon we were doing 15 runs a month in the truck.

More about the Mobile Loaves & Fishes Story

More from the Austin Chronicle, on the growing issue of homelessness.

An Urban Affairs Review study of panhandling in Austin.

As of today, Mobile Loaves & Fishes has served 1,824,787 meals to the homeless with a total of 17 trucks.

Having fun at a benefit is great, but not if you end up raising very little money. Approximately 450 people showed up for sumo suit wrestling, a raffle and T Bird and the Breaks for Twestival, a benefit for charity:water. Many people told me they were having a great time.

Well, I’m happy to report that not only did we have a great time, we raised $8868 for charity:water. Considering Los Angeles and London are a lot bigger than we are and raised just over $10k, I’d say we rocked and then some. Many thanks to Orgsync, Sentient Services, WebWorks, Mosso, JungleDisk, Kimbia,SxSW, TechRanch Austin, Piryx, Nerdabout, and Network in Austin for their cash donations. I would also like to thank Stalelife, Stephanie Malone Designs, Buildasign.com, A Glimmer of Hope, and Basiccouture.net, Storme Wood, and Paul Walhus for volunteering their services. Aces Lounge did a great job of accommodating us.

Thanks to all the volunteers. You made this happen and don’t forget it!

The money we raised is enough for over two wells in many areas. That equates to water for possibly tens of thousands of people. All my blessings to charity:water and its partner charities like A Glimmer of Hope for all the hard work they do to make this happen.

If you’d like an Austin Twestival t-shirt, I’m selling the rest for $10 a piece with all profits going to charity:water. Leave a comment on this post and we’ll meet up when I’m back in town. If you’d like to see the pics, check out images by Michael Cummings, Jungle McLovin, and Eugene Hsu.

Wildwood Interactive has donated two single seats to a seminar of the winner’s choice, topics include:

• Simple Simon SEO – Legitimate SEO strategies
• How I Lost 36 Pounds Using Social Media
• In-Your-Seat Networking – Intro to LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter

Thanks to CJ Romberger and the rest of the folks at Wildwood Interactive for supporting Austin Twestival and charity: water!

We have received last minute raffle items, which is great because we want more Austin Twestival supporters to go home winners! New items include:

• 6 passes to see The Dark Knight at IMAX courtesy of Chrontourage
• tickets to the Austin Toros basketball game (vs Albuquerque) on Feb 26 courtesy of Chrontourage
• $20 gift card to Opal Divine’s courtesy of Chrontourage
• An 11 X 14 image of texas wildflowers, courtesy of Gary Regner Photography

The Chrontourage a group of people enthusiastic about promoting The Austin Chronicle, and can be found at various bars, restaurants, museums, movie theatres and other venues around Austin. At these event Chrontourage gives out swag and register attendees for free movies, concerts, performances, and events.

Gary Regner Photography has been featured in Texas Highways Wildflower Calendar as well as periodicals and travel guides for Texas. I particularly enjoy the comprehensive Texas Wildflower Index which is organized by color, which is very helpful with identifying wildflowers of which I’ve taken (less professional) photos.