TIGNISH – A full month after Christopher Cross Requests (CCR) stopped taking requests, there are still more than 13,680 members tuning in to the more than 1,100 music videos the site generated.
Malcolm and Kelly Pitre from Christopher Cross launched the crowd-funding campaign on Feb. 18 as an online fundraiser for the Beaton family.
By the time the requests stopped, more than $38,000 had been raised for the family.
Although the requests were terminated on March 18, Malcolm Pitre said recently that musicians are still uploading videos in response to the requests. In fact, he said, he still has two songs to upload.
The success of CCR has since led to the creation of three other similar online fundraisers, and many of the CCR performers, including Pitre, have contributed songs in support of those causes.
Last Sunday the Tignish Legion hosted an appreciation night to help wrap up the CCR fundraiser. Donation boxes were set up to assist the online fundraisers supporting John A’Hearn, Kipton Collicutt and Amber Jadis.
“It’s no big deal,” Pitre said of the work involved managing the CCR site since the requests portion of the site ended on March 11. “Videos are still trickling in,” he noted. It was more hectic during the 22 days the ‘requests line” was open.
Over 30 of the singers who contributed songs to Christopher Cross Requests took to the legion stage, backed up by five frequent contributors, Joey Doucette, Kurk Bernard, Daniel Drouin, Rodney Arsenault and Blair Gaudet.
Like all their contributions to the online fundraiser, Pitre said the singers and musicians gave freely of their time for the special wrap-up event.
During the wrap-up, Pitre provided a summary of what Christopher Cross Requests generated including how it caused many people to dust off their guitars and play a tune. He listed the many instruments that made their way into the music videos and the places where the songs were recorded including in garages, vehicles, bedrooms, man caves, schools, churches, a Jamaican resort and the oilfields of Alberta.
