A message from Donny Ness.

Wellstone World Music Day
In Duluth!!!

Saturday, October 25th, 7:30-9:30
Mitchell Auditorium at St. Scholastica


Donations to Wellstone Action and "Carry It Forward" Documentary accepted.

Dear friends,

Saturday, October 25th represents the one year anniversary of the loss of two of our country's great leaders and four others who were part of our extended family of progressive minded people. The loss of Paul and Sheila Wellstone, as well as our friends Mary, Will, Tom, Marcia and the pilots, was devastating to us all.

One year ago, many of us in the progressive community came together in solidarity to grieve, to console, but most importantly to pick up the torch that Paul had left us and to continue his fight for justice in our country. That cold and somber October night in 2003 we gathered together at Mitchell Auditorium, less than 8 hours after the plane went down, to share in our loss and our sadness. But from that gathering came a great force of goodwill, and power, and a force of will to capture his spirit in our actions. It was a magical moment that I will never forget - and if you were there, I'm sure you feel the same.

This Saturday will be revisiting the site of that initial ad-hoc memorial, Mitchell Auditorium at the College of St Scholastica, on the one year anniversary for a celebration of the lives of Paul and Sheila Wellstone. We are adopting the theme of a celebration taking place that very day in the Twin Cities - we are contributing to the first annual Wellstone World Music Day right here in Duluth. Starting at 7:30 we will have a 90-120 minute program featuring local musicians, speakers, and a VERY special presentation of a 15 minute preview of the upcoming Wellstone documentary “Carry It Forward"being put together by a team of talented folks in the cities. I've seen a clip and it is really amazing - you don't want to miss this. For more information on the documentary or to make a contribution check out their web site: www.carryitforward.org

After the program we are encouraging folks to attend one of the music performances in various participating venues around town to carry on the celebration of the spirit of Paul's life by enjoying the talents of our local musicians.

The venues and artists are as follows:

Beaner's - Audrey & Boku Frequency
Fitger's - Haley Bonar
Amazing Grace - Sticky Nickle (aka Tom Feldman)
Pizza Luce - Levitate
We will be asking for donations at the door at Mitchell Auditorium and the proceeds will be split between Wellstone Action and the "Carry It Forward" documentary project. Give whatever you are comfortable giving, but please do not feel like you must contribute - it is strictly voluntary.

Andy Smentkowski and I have been organizing the event to this point. Unfortunately my time has been compromised with other projects including Laura and I are opening a Vintage Clothes and Gifts store at 205 E Superior St (our grand opening is this Saturday - come and check it out!), plus work and council business - not to mention the campaign. Anyway, lets just say this event on Saturday will have a very casual feel to it, which from my perspective is just fine - its just a way to bring friends together to celebrate the lives of our heroes. Please do not feel offended if you were not involved in the planning or in the program. If we would have had more time to pull this off it would have been more professionally done - and we would have covered all the bases - but there is only so much time in a day. So, I hope folks will be willing to cut us some slack if there are a few hitches in the production.

Finally, I need help to pull this thing off. I will be having a short organizational and volunteer meeting on Wednesday, Oct 22nd, at 5pm at the Oberstar Campaign office (222 W 1st St) to take care of all of the last minute details. It would be great to have 10-15 folks here to help organize details for the event and to help distribute posters around town.

The other way that you can help is to send this e-mail far and wide to every person you might think is interested in such an event. That would be a huge help!

Thanks everyone. Take care and God bless you all,

Donny