Earlier this month, just after our last Connections show, I posted what we believed would be the fundraising total for the night.

Today, I am very pleased to tell you we were very wrong.

The actual grand total from the LLUMC show is….

$7,100!!!

Good Lord!

That beats our previous best show by $3K!!!

The good folks at LLUMC kept the books open, and apparently some folks who intended to give that night opened up their hearts and their pocketbooks.

That means, dear friends, that we were able to provide 710 mosquito nets for families in Africa, through our beneficiary, “Nothing But Nets.”

That means, dear friends, that the lives of thousands of people have been saved by the generosity of our crowd that night, and the good folks at LLUMC.

This new information also puts us right at another amazing milestone:

Connections Band has now officially raised just under $30,000 for worthy charities in our “cover” shows.*

Our last show was our 12th, and with the phenomenal result there, our average-per-show is now $2,400.

Recently, founding members held a meeting where we looked forward to the Fall and to next year. (Stay tuned for exciting announcements about that soon, BTW…)

And at that meeting, we all expressed a sincere amazement at where this band has been during our journey together. When we put on our first show, none of us could imagine we’d do twelve shows, let alone raise tens of thousands of dollars for worthy causes.

Now, as we look back at the last few years –and having just played the show that brought us all together in the first place (The Fogelberg Show)– we stand in awe and in gratitude…

We’re grateful for all our fans…and especially our growing list of “groupies” that see to be following us from show-to-show. Thanks to all of you!

We’re grateful to all the host churches and volunteers who set the space for us.

We’re grateful to our over 35 band members, and their endless hours of rehearsal, volunteering their own time.

We’re grateful for the chance to make music with all of them, and to call them friends and colleagues.

We’re grateful to all the donors who’ve supported these causes.

We’re grateful to the songwriters/performers we seek to honor through our shows.

And we’re grateful to God, for the incredible opportunity to be a part of something so fun and worthwhile.

As we said a moment ago, we’re not done yet!

Stay tuned soon for a complete and and confirmed schedule for the Fall, including an exciting new show to debut in September!!

And thanks for being connected,

Eric