Hello, friends!
It’s been a minute since my last blog post…last November, I believe…before the ‘Deep Freeze of 2022’ closed out the year, before the glorious Christmas season, before the start of this new year…2023.
“They say it’s your birthday!” (Cue Beatles music here…)
This year will mark a ‘significant’ St. Patrick’s Day birthday for me (at least on 
the chronological calendar…really, they are ALL significant), and I continue to enjoy this season of taking a look back and reflecting, with joy and gratitude, on the countless blessings I have received throughout my life. To that end, I’m starting on a project this year to share the story of my musical journey, using words, images, audio, and video in a multi-media format (probably YouTube) collected from the past 40 years or so…should be interesting…stay tuned for that.
But to mark this upcoming birthday, I wanted to find a way to continue some work that means a lot to me and offer you friends and fans of the Big Front Porch an opportunity to share in that work.
Some of the most impactful programs I’ve ever been a part of have used songwriting as a means of honest and powerful self-expression, from kids to cancer survivors to social workers to veterans.
It’s no secret that I’m very proud of what was developed and accomplished at the Delta Music Institute at Delta State University during my tenure…state-of-the-art recording studios, a robust entertainment industry curriculum, a diverse faculty and staff, and engaged students.
In addition to that academic work, DMI was blessed with a decade of grant funding to engage youth in a program that used songwriting as a means to 
develop positive self-identity, address community and cultural issues, and provide a popular medium for participants to find and share their ‘voice.’ The program, started in 2013, was called Healing With A Groove, and I saw first hand the impact it made on young people as well as the DSU students who mentored young writers. The grant ended after I retired from DSU, but one of the final goals of the grant was to develop a ‘tool kit’ that would be available for use by groups and organizations interested in carrying on the work.
So to mark this ‘significant’ birthday, I created a Big Front Porch Giving Fund, administered by the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, to receive donations towards the continuation of the Healing With A Groove work in our local community, using the ‘tool kit’ developed by the grant.
If you’d like a little ‘backstory’ on the program, here’s a link from the grant’s primary funder: https://www.wkkf.org/what-we-do/featured-work/healing-with-a-groove-uses-music-to-promote-racial-healing-in-the-mississippi-delta
Focusing on local participation this time around, the program will be smaller in scale, and therefore, not too costly. Funds would be used primarily to reproduce the program’s resources for participants and for production and recording services after songs are completed.
Here’s a CFNM link to donate online along with a nice graphic with a QR code that will also take you to the CFNM donation page online. The name of the fund is Big Front Porch.
Friends and fans, YOU are the best birthday gift to me…I am blessed.
With a grateful heart, Tricia