the story evolves

This month has been full of first times for Love Light & Melody as we’ve watched several beautiful projects roll through to completion...

Just a few weeks ago we pulled together our first official t-shirt, and the design is really powerful thanks to our friends at Jedidiah! And then to go along with the t-shirt, we’ve been partnering with Cobian , a San Diego based sandal company, on designing a benefit Love Light & Melody flip-flop to raise money and awareness for those living in the dump.  Lastly, Changents, a web-based organization devoted to telling the story of “change agents,” just ran a full feature on Braddigan and Love Light & Melody, so please have a look and spread the word, it’s a great action oriented site.

In addition, a few of us just returned from an eventful week in Columbus, Ohio where Braddigan played and spoke at several events to raise awareness for LL&M. One of the highlights there was watching a high school lacrosse team commit to supporting LL&M after hearing the stories and seeing the pictures. So now the Upper Arlington Lacrosse team is leading the way in their community by organizing and investing in how they can use their talents and passion for lacrosse to serve!  Just another example of how the story continues to draw and inspire people’s imaginations... we sure were encouraged. Lacrosse?  Of course.

Below you’ll find a few more examples how individuals have been giving of their time, talent, and treasure...

time

talent

treasure

In October while Braddigan was on tour in Japan, his good friends Geoff and Renee Rhinehart wanted to know more about the “School of Hope” inside the trash dump and how they could get directly involved, particularly with the arts.

So they went through their local church body and organized a donation drive where they gathered colored pencils, notebooks, scissors, construction paper, and other miscellaneous school supplies for the 350-400 little ones that go to the school every day.


Graphic designer and friend, Hayes Trotter of Denver, Colorado, used his eye and talent to design a new LL&M logo that we will be using for our business cards, letter head, thank you cards, etc... (might even become shirt #2!).  So we’re really excited to see this new and beautifully inspired logo become a part of LL&M’s visual language, and we’ve been inspired and encouraged to see Hayes’ take on the meaning behind Love Light & Melody.

We just love this kind of stuff, and want to have as much original art flowing into LL&M as possible! So please: any and all of you artists out there... please consider using your gifts to draw, paint, design, and shape our story!

Thirteen year old Hannah Quinn, of Middlebury, Vermont, brought tears to all of our eyes when she wrote a poem inspired by video footage and pictures of Ileana, a thirteen year old girl who lives in the dump. She also quietly gave us a card in an envelope with $127 packed inside — all the money she received for her birthday – to be used to buy clothes for Ileana and her sisters.

She wrote, “I think Ileana needs this money more than I do.” Wow. Thank you, Hannah, for being so brave, for encouraging all of us, and for helping to lead the way!

hannah's poem

Brave is a fourteen-year-old girl in poverty. Hope is her smile. Sacrifice is her way of life. Beautiful is her heart. Generosity is her devotion. Hospitality is her family. Re-define what you think you know. Re-evaluate life.

finding your voice

Love Light & Melody exists to give voice to a voiceless community... to bring unity, love, joy, and hope to a small group of people in another nation.

It’s amazing to think though how often we are exactly like the very community we’re trying to help??  How desperately we all wish to be heard in the midst of all the noise that surrounds us, and how much we all need unity, love, joy, hope.

Well, there is a saying “that you can certainly go fast alone, but you can only go far together.” So when any of you step forward and choose to walk with us, we know we can go further and that our collective voice will be heard. You matter to this story.  Your thoughts, your ideas, your gifts, your hearts are vital to all that is occurring in Managua’s city landfill.  What is your role?  What is your contribution? Ask yourself the question. There are many projects in need of your resources, so if you are interested please visit our website and make a donation.

Thank you for standing with us!

K.C. Dewey
Love Light & Melody
Executive Director