Support POW!

The POW! Festival
is a weekend of poetry in Cobourg, Ontario, Thurs., April 15 through Sun., April 18, 2010.

Last year, we created our Town's weekend poetry festival and it immediately garnered national-recognition as a successful event. As well as Cobourg and places close by, POW! drew visitors from Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa, and Windsor. The municipal Council proclaimed the dates to be "Poetry Weekend in Cobourg" and the 400 audience members who we attracted report being extremely positive about our little town hosting this festival.

If POW! is successful for a second year, we will make ourselves eligible for "Year After Year" festival funding. That is a goal that I have begun to call: YAY POW!

Just so you know, at the end of this, I will ask:
"Will you give $10 to our 2010 YAY POW! campaign?"

We do not use the funds we raise for any purpose except to cover costs. The festival is put on by volunteers; no one among the organizers draws a salary or hourly wages. Last year, we were able to make revenue (ticket sales, business sponsorships and fundraising) cover costs, in part, because of the generous gestures to reduce charges by participating Poets (and some of those getting rent or payment for other services); and, in part, because an anonymous "arts patron" covered any remaining cost overrun.

We learned from that experience and, for 2010, we have a "grassroots" fundraising campaign. This is based on two ideas:
1. people who love poetry (and the Arts, in general), are willing to contribute to ensure that events like this are created and continue to occur, whether they are able to attend or not,
2. getting 200 people to donate $10 each is often more realistic than getting a single sponsor to donate $2,000.

Last year, while I was busy promoting our first POW! Festival, I received a letter in the mail accompanied by a cheque. The letter told me,

"James,
I'm old and bones and stairs tell me I'll never make your poetry festival. But a weekend of poetry sounds perfect to me and I wish they had one here. It'll be tonic to everyone. Even though I'll never make it, it's good and you should do it and keep on all the next years. I'm sending $55 cheque. Use it the way you know best. To make the festival happen. If I was your age I would be right there to listen every minute to every poet. Or I'd put on the festival instead of you and with the attention they used to give me I'd get one of those poets naked in bed. Because I can't be there can you ship the best looking one across the country to me?
And POW!"

Note two things:
(1) I believe she thinks I am younger than I actually am but, perhaps not, because,
(2) she didn't ask me to go across the country to visit her.

Probably just as well, given the mood-boost her letter and donation brought to me, it would have been tempting.

My question is:
Will you give $10 to our 2010 YAY POW! campaign?

Our bank for the festival will process cheques made out to any of the following:
"POW!" or
"POW! Festival" or
"p o e t r y'z o w n " or
"P o e t r y'z O w n Weekend" or
"P o e t r y'z O w n Weekend Festival"

You can use ground mail (snail mail) to send your cheque to:
POW!
c/o James Pickersgill
383 College St
Cobourg ON
K9A 3V5

… and if you take offence at this fundraising solicitation, I apologize and strongly encourage you to now do something you find relaxing …

… and if you take no offence but cannot afford to donate, I fully understand and thank you for taking the time to read this.

With full respect, I am,
James Pickersgill