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Ok, so I went back to Slidell for the first time since the hurricane hit. It's bad. There are a lot of volunteers helping to clean it up, but it's gonna take a long, long time. My house faired well. We lost every tree in our yard and a few fell on the house. Considering that about 5 miles away people got as much as 5 feet of water in their house, I'm a luck SOB. My church got 3 feet of water. Everything got destroyed, all of the multimedia equipment, the pianos, the organ, the pews, everything.

So here's the deal; as the old sound tech at my church, and the most knowledgeable on the subject, I've been put in charge of acquiring a new sound system and some digital projectors. We don't have any money from insurance yet, but I'm going to do everything I can to see that those poor people don't have to worry about raising $$$ to pay for a sound system. They need to worry about rebuilding their homes first. I need help finding someone who will sell me sound equipment and digital projectors at wholesale. Better yet, if any companies want to make donations; we'd be greatly appreciative. If you know anyone who owns a music store and wants to help out by either selling to me at wholesale or donating, please tell me. The church would be more than willing to give the business some sort of compensation in the form of tax deductions.

peace,

russ

My email is:

rgareh1@lsu.edu

Edited by thegarehanman
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Hey garehan,

I know you're pretty worried about your church family right now, but I think they'll be okay with the insurance money they get. The insurance companies are going to be giving out checks like water over the next few months, and I doubt your church will have to wait very long at all.

You might check with Peavey. They'll probably be happy to help out in any way they can being based in Mississippi and all. I don't know how fancy you were looking to get but their stuff is solid and good quality.

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you might get something from a major company.. never hurts to ask. I'm thinking you'd do better with an actual AV firm though. i've got to find their contact info but there is a group here in Johnson City called AVI that specializes in church installations. They are members of Grace Fellowship who is partnered with a church in western new orleans, which survived, in lots of projects down there. If anyone was willing to help with discounts, it would be those guys and they really know their stuff. as soon as I dig up their URL i'll post it for ya.

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Please don't patronize me Jay5. I have taken a very active role in this. Am I in that big of a hurry? Trust me when I tell you that it takes an immeasurable amount of restraint to merely tell you you're being insensitive. I'm not in a hurry, but I see no reason in waiting to take care of this. I'm certain this will take me a long time. Perhaps the church will get a lot from the insurance company, perhaps not. Would you tell a family who's home's been destroyed not to ask for help rebuilding their home because maybe they'll get lots of money from the insurance company and be able to pay a contractor? I sincerely doubt it. I have approached one local music store with a great deal of diplomacy but was almost immediately turned down. I'm merely asking to buy at cost. I have refrained from approaching any national chains as I expect to be turned down even faster. I will try them, but I figured I’d ask friends first. However, it's becoming more and more apparent that I will have to tell the congregation that I can't get them any deals. Especially if the rest of America shares the sentiments of Jay.

peace,

russ

PS

Thank you for understanding mledbetter. Please PM me if you're able to find it. I'll be doing some googling for firms and stores in the south throughout the next few weeks. Perhaps I'll stumble upon that one.

Edited by thegarehanman
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I think it's great that you guys are offering some help, I wish I had something to offer, beside donations as I have donated as much as I could. To touch on what you mentioned Jay, I think the church becomes a very important place during times like these, those people that are religious will be in need of support and thats what the church will offer them. It must be very tough for those people and if they had their church opened and setup that would be very good for them mentally and spiritually, and if you can imagine all the people with now homes, those people would love some shelter for a little while and to pray for things to get better. So I would say that for many people as soon as possible would be the best and I think that would be best. Of course a pa system isn't what makes a church but it would make it much easier for the people to hear everything and would give them a level of comfort that out of all this messed up stuff that the church is still there standing the same as it was and will be. Anyways good luck Russ and I hope you find what you need, mledbetter seemed to have a really good suggestion hopefully that will work out for you. Jason

Edit: I would assume that there isn't much "local" stores or shops left anyways, and they would be in need as well so it might be hard to do it that way, I hope you figure things out man, we posted at the same time I guess I could have just said ditto.

Edited by jmrentis
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Actually Jason, we had chruch this morning. The pews were covered in mud and there is a mud line on the walls. All that's left of the flooring is the glue from under the carpet. All of the other furniture, instruments, and equiptment are in a huge pile on the side of the road. Despite all of this, we had a lovely church service. There are so many people here offering their services. It's truly inspiring.

peace,

russ

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Actually Jason, we had chruch this morning. The pews were covered in mud and there is a mud line on the walls. All that's left of the flooring is the glue from under the carpet. All of the other furniture, instruments, and equiptment are in a huge pile on the side of the road. Despite all of this, we had a lovely church service. There are so many people here offering their services. It's truly inspiring.

Thats really good to hear man! I bet it is helping many people to feel some sort of comfort during all these bad times. As bad as the church is I bet everyone is glad it is still there and is able to be open for service. I'm hoping to hear you figure something out, if I can do anything let me know and I will brainstorm anyways for something or somewhere I can get for help for you guys. Good luck man. Later. Jason

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Music stores are strange. There's nothing magical about being able to buy stuff wholesale. I have a resellers license. That's how i get all my guitar parts so cheap. However, I can't just call up allen & heath and buy a board, I have to be a dealer which requires minimums, exclusivity agreements, sale price restrictions, etc.. so there may be other forces at work here.

You could have even gotten some hostility because you are representing a church.. don't forget one of the stages of grief is anger and in times like these many people are angry at God or scoff at people who would worship a God who woult "let something like this happen" out of ignorance. You'll definitely have to find the right people.

AVI deals with everything from sound to lighting to display tech. they are a great bunch of guys that are also musicians and are very active at church.. One of our pastors is from the NO area, and that church we are partnered with is where he and his wife met I think.. some connection like that.. so it's an area where a lot of our congregation have a greater sensitivity right now..

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Slow down man. I specifically said that I was trying not to be insensitive here. I was specifically referring to your response made only a few hours after the original post. You came off (to me anyways) as being in a hurry, and as you know, these things take time.

Would you tell a family who's home's been destroyed not to ask for help rebuilding their home because maybe they'll get lots of money from the insurance company and be able to pay a contractor?

Dont play that card with me.

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im not a churchgoer anymore, but i dont think it takes a PA and a bunch of AV equipment to spread the word of god. The fact that you had a service at all says alot for your church. To me not having that stuff would bring the service closer to everyone there. But, in that sense i guess im old fashion, The church i attended when i was younger didnt have a PA much less screens or anything, we were lucky the lights worked everytime. I understand you wanting to get the church back on its feet again. That rocks. Just be thankful your alive, i think that would be the most important to me. The loss of life down there with you guys is scary! And besides if Jesus would have had a PA they never would have got his monitors right, the guitars would be too loud, the bass player would be behind the beat, the drummer would play to fast, and forgive us all if there was a keyboardist :D. The load in would have been through a back alley, down 2 sets of stairs through a kitchen and back up a service elevator. The opener would go over his set time and take forever getting off the stage, and im sure there would be some old non-believer in the back yelling "TURN IT DOWN!"

These are hard times.

keep the love guys and gals

just my lacking of 14 dollars of having 27 cents.....dang me

bj

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RGGR. I tried to explain my thinking, but I suppose I was not clear. The reason I am doing this is precisely because the people lost everything. I'm not in Slidell because of college and so I can't help with any of the physical labor. That's covered pretty well. There are a lot of people down there helping. My dad is actually coordinating a lot of the teams from churchs around the nation. The church must be rebuilt. It's the place people go to find hope. The best help I can offer is finding them a new sound system. I do my share of physical labor when I go there on the weekends, but as far as I'm concerned, helping on the weekends is not enough.

peace,

russ

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I see lots of people having lost their house, jobs, loved ones and you're worried about your church's sound system???

I can't relate to your priorities. Sorry!!!

The point being exactly what you said.. You can't relate.. so why post at all.

When times like this happen, people of faith turn to their church family for support and to God for strength to handle it all. If folks choose not to live that way, or don't understand, that's their business but you have to at least ACCEPT that to a lot of people, the church is the only thing that will help them through this. The church today is vastly different from the church 10-15 years ago.. PA systems and projection systems have become an integral part of worship.

I've seen several posts in the katrina threads that are apparent jabs at Christians and I well understand these feelings, a lot of which is a cynicism around "how could someone worship a God that would do this to them" but that thought is completely born out of ignorance and only suggest that the writer has absolutely no understanding of what a Christian believes. There is a time and a place for that conversation and misdirected anger, but right now it is neither.

The guy just asked for suggestions.. not a critique of his priorities or beliefs.

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Yes people have lost their homes, jobs and loved ones. Yes people do turn to their church. I think Russ here is not just trying to help get it up and running again but looking into something he knows about to help get it up and running again. Everyone who was hit by the storm has to pitch in every way, whether big or small. I am from Toronto Canada and when I get a list I will look into it. I may not be able to find stuff but it's worth a shot.

By the way, does it matter if the gear is used or not?

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I would kind of feel bad about giving them second hand stuff, but used beats nothing at all. I will accept any useable equiptment(assuming it's needed) from anyone willing to help. If it makes a difference(and you live in the U.S.), I can take your name and address and talk to the church about tax deductions based on the value of the donation. It's a fairly common practice actually.

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Ok, I made up a list of everything that was lost. You'll notice I didn't include any speakers. Fortunately, all of our JBL monsterously large speakers were high enough that the water didn't touch them. This is everything that I can remember the church having. There may be a few things missing from the list, but it's pretty much covered. I didn't include brands for items that aren't unique to a certain brand. The church will also be interested in a computer and a set of projectors as it's changing over to a contemporary worship service, but I didn't include those in the list as they weren't lost in the flood. Still, if anyone wanted to donate them...there would be no objections. Also, I sent an email to Peavey. If they send one back turning me down, I'll call them and try again. I'm also working on a letter to carvin.

-32 channel mixer(24 mic ins, 4 stereo ins, 6 aux sends, stereo output)

-2 lapel wireless units(UHF)

-2 hand held wireless units(UHF)

-2 overhead percussion mics

-1 bass drum mic

-8 vocal/instrument mics

-2 hanging, omni-directional mics

-1 omin-directional mic on mountable gooseneck

-BBE 482i Sonic Maximizer

-31 band stereo graphic EQ

-DeEsser

-Stereo Compressor

-2000w stereo power amp

-3 100w active monitors

-wireless in-ear monitor

-30in/6out snake

-rackmountable cd burner

Edited by thegarehanman
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I'd send that list to the AVI guys when you contact them.. One thing I saw this weekend was a dbx product.. the DriveRack.. takes the place of several of those items.. These guys are sharp. Even if they couldn't cut huge discounts they might be able to tell you how to get more for your money with a nicer setup.

Ok, I made up a list of everything that was lost. You'll notice I didn't include any speakers. Fortunately, all of our JBL monsterously large speakers were high enough that the water didn't touch them. This is everything that I can remember the church having. There may be a few things missing from the list, but it's pretty much covered. I didn't include brands for items that aren't unique to a certain brand. The church will also be interested in a computer and a set of projectors as it's changing over to a contemporary worship service, but I didn't include those in the list as they weren't lost in the flood. Still, if anyone wanted to donate them...there would be no objections. Also, I sent  an email to Peavey. If they send one back turning me down, I'll call them and try again. I'm also working on a letter to carvin.

-32 channel mixer(24 mic ins, 4 stereo ins, 6 aux sends, stereo output)

-2 lapel wireless units(UHF)

-2 hand held wireless units(UHF)

-2 overhead percussion mics

-1 bass drum mic

-8 vocal/instrument mics

-2 hanging, omni-directional mics

-1 omin-directional mic on mountable gooseneck

-BBE 482i Sonic Maximizer

-31 band stereo graphic EQ

-DeEsser

-Stereo Compressor

-2000w stereo power amp

-3 100w active monitors

-wireless in-ear monitor

-30in/6out snake

-rackmountable cd burner

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If they were smart, the guys at Sweetwater, Musician's Friend, Sam Ash, Guitar Center, or some other "big box" retailer would issue an "Everything at cost + 10% to churches affected by Katrina" program. They could probably even write off the loss in profits between cost+10 and regular price. It would be a nice gesture and probably gain them some lifelong customers.

I understand the church priority. And getting the church back in business doesn't somehow make it take longer for the homes to be rebuilt. But in the mean time having a clean, functioning church to go to would be the perfect refuge for people in these times. It's a totally reasonable request, and it's clear that Jay 5 was just referring to the closeness in time between the first and second post, not the content of the first post.

Edited by frank falbo
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