FRIENDS OF KARL WATT

Keeping Karl's Dream and Spirit Alive by Fighting ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease)

Author Archive

Heaven just got a bit louder

Jul 20, 2010 Announcements

Today we not only lost a great friend and family member, we also lost one of the most talented and creative minds in the music industry. Karl Watt succumbed to his battle with ALS this morning and passed away peacefully in his Nanaimo home at 1:55 AM in the presence of his mother and stepfather, Misty and Norm Alexander.

The volunteers at The Friends of Karl Watt wish to express our deepest sympathies and condolences to all of Karl’s friends and family wherever you may be.  Our hearts go out each and every one of you.

We will continue raising funds for the Full Wattage Benefit at The Yale on July 28 in order to help Misty and Norm with funeral arrangements.  We will also explore the option to create a charitable foundation in Karl’s name to keep his dream and spirit alive.

The show must go on! Karl would not want it any other way.

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Help fight ALS. Win some great prizes!

Jul 20, 2010 Donations, Events

Get your tickets!  You’ll hate yourself if you don’t!

Seriously, we have a phenomenal amount of prizes to be won at the Full Wattage Benefit Show at The Yale on Wednesday, July 28th.  Don’t miss your chance to win some great swag and stuff…  all for a great cause and a great friend!  Tell your friends and family.  Spread the word.

Check out the list of prizes below.  They are just some of the highlighted prizes you can win!

Raffle Ticket Prizes

Tickets are $5 each and you don’t need to attend the show to win.  Draw will take place after the show at The Yale.  Winners will be notified by phone.

1st Prize – Weekend for 4 in Whistler, BC

2nd Prize – 32″ SHARP LCD TV

3rd Prize – BC Lions Tickets and Swag

Silent Auction Prizes

Vancouver 2010 Snowboard Bag including a Souvenir Ticket to the Men’s Gold Medal Hockey Game

Markus Naslund Jersey plus 2 tickets to upcoming Canucks vs Hurricanes game

Signed Evander Kane hockey stick plus 4 tickets for upcoming Giants game

Round of Golf for 4 at Tall Timbers Golf Course in Langley, BC

VIP dinner for 2 at Hastings Race Park

Dinner Package at The Keg

These are just some of the highlighted prizes. There are more prizes including…

  • car cover awning worth $200
  • custom made reclaimed coffee and end tables worth $1500… three styles to choose from!
  • two autographed copies of Peace Begins With Me, by Ted Kuntz, M.Ed.
  • gift baskets, jewelry, art
  • 50/50 Draw Prize
  • Door Prize
  • and more!

So don’t miss out!  The show will be great but so will winning all these cool prizes.  And remember, ALL the proceeds go directly to the Karl Watt Trust Fund.

Many thanks go out to every contributor for donating these prizes and making this event truly special.

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Full Wattage update

Jul 7, 2010 Announcements, Updates

Here’s a quick meeting update.  I finally have a few minutes to recap the last meeting from Monday June 29. Sorry for the delay…

We had a great meeting.  Mike, Rob, John, Kevin, Cherelle and Achim were on hand to plan the next few weeks.  Thanks to Carrie LaRoue for dropping by with her ticket $$…   ;-)

Tickets

Tickets are selling but we need to keep telling more people.  We know it’s not the best day/time for an event like this but The Yale is giving it to us for free including $500.  Please keep spreading the word!  Please please please!!

Banking

Misty (Karl’s mom) and I are finalizing the banking and PayPal syncing and setup this week.  From here on, Misty will be the goto person for all donations and funds for Karl.  Look for an update on the Donations page this week.

Swag
We have very cool swag happening for the show!!

  • T-Shirts – $20 each (see sample above… yes, it’s ONLY a sample, shirt style will likely change)
  • 50/50 draw
  • Raffle with three prizes (1st Weekend for 4 in Whistler Condo, 2nd Flat Screen TV, 3rd BC Lions Tickets) – tickets $5 each
  • Silent Auction
  • Wristbands
  • Posters
  • Magnets/Stickers

Please stay in touch via the website, Facebook, Twitter and keep plugging the benefit for Karl on July 28th!  We need your support!  We can’t do this without you!

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Tickets on sale for Full Wattage benefit

Jun 15, 2010 Announcements, Events

Ticket’s are now on sale for the Full Wattage Benefit Concert on July 28 at The Yale!

You can get tickets from any of the volunteers listed here…

For ticket information, email

Details about the Benefit can be found here…

Thank you for your support!  See you at the show!

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Of Drums, Iron Maiden and Much Wattage

Jun 12, 2010 Just Sharing

So here’s the scene: it’s the Fall of 1982 in the south wing of Queen Elizabeth Senior Secondary School. I’m hanging with Kevin Axelson, Stan Sullivan and Rob Gunn after Mr Heatherington’s Commercial Art class when up walks this lean tough-looking dude. Kevin, the quintessential master of introductions, says, “Hey Ack, I’d like you to meet Karl Watt. He’s a drummer too.” Cool.

We hit it off instantly. We talked about drums and drummers. Pearl. Tama. Neil Peart. John Bonham. Clive Burr.

“Clive Burr? Who the fuck is Clive Burr?” Karl asks.

“Iron Maiden’s drummer,” I say.

“Who the fuck is Iron Maiden?” Karl asks again.

That very next weekend, I hauled my 13 piece silver Tama drums over to the The Blue Garage on 92nd Avenue in my dad’s 1974 yellow Ford pickup, with Karl’s mom, Misty, rolling her eyes as I unloaded my stuff.

I set up my kit across from Karl’s red Pearl kit so we could jam to his cranked stereo like the Doobie Brothers or something, and have drum duels. But I also brought with me, two records that would forever change Karl’s musical destiny… Killers and The Number of the Beast.

I can’t take all the credit for introducing Iron Maiden to Karl because Stan and Kevin got me hooked on the band the year before. I remember us heading to Kelly’s Stereo on Main Street in Stan’s Datsun B210 to meet Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Dave Murray and Clive Burr before they opened for the Scorpions at the Pacific Coliseum for their Beast on the Road Tour. That show is forever etched in my mind with Bruce “The Air Raid Siren” screaming “Yo, Yo, Yo, Yo!” while wearing Stan’s jean jacket with Eddie inked on the back. The ticket stub above is the one I had Clive Burr sign. I still have it.

Of course, Karl got hooked on Maiden too, especially after we went to the World Piece Tour together the next summer, me with my broken right leg. Karl and my brother, Andy, carried me to the front row. Ironically, 25 years later Andy and I returned the favour and carried Karl to the Coliseum to see Maiden’s Somewhere Back In Time tour in 2008. Somewhere back in time indeed.

Karl became so immersed in Maiden that his progressive metal band, OSIRIS, was inspired by Maiden’s 1984 Powerslave album. We jammed and drum-dueled in The Blue Garage often and always, especially along with those early Maiden classics. I learned a lot about drumming and rudiments from Karl. I could tell he was unbelievably talented the first time I heard him play. His attention to detail and timing was impeccable. I learned how to play paradiddles by watching Karl play along to Triumph’s Little Texas Shaker. He was a damn fine teacher.

I ended up selling my silver Tama drums to Karl before I graduated and before the World Piece Tour. I broke my leg. Karl got my drums. The rest is history.

Wow… I just realized how much I miss hearing Karl play.

\m/ KARL ROCKS \m/

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Volunteer meeting on Monday, June 14

Jun 10, 2010 Announcements, Volunteering

MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT

We are planning a volunteer meeting on Monday evening to discuss the project, the Full Wattage benefit and next steps.  The meeting will be in Surrey so if you want to participate, please reply to this post and register before Monday.

So far, the confirmed volunteers are…

  • Achim Klor
  • Cherelle Jardine
  • Kevin Axelson
  • Mike Timoffee
  • John Hansen
  • Rob Merko
  • Grant Shannon

Let us know as soon as you can.

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Top 10 reasons to become a member

Jun 10, 2010 Administration

I have a huge favour to ask!  To help us reduce the multiple ways of communicating with you (ugh!), we have set up a very simple registration system on this website.  It’s super easy and has a ton of benefits.

Here are the top 10 reasons why you should become a member (in no particular order)…

  • Karl gets to see the people that care about him.
  • You get to see the people that care about Karl.
  • You get to be part of something great.
  • You can post messages and share your stories.
  • Helps build awareness.
  • You can be a volunteer and communicate with other volunteers
  • It’s free and you can cancel at any time.
  • Reduces spam.
  • You don’t need to be on Facebook or Twitter.
  • Reduces our workload (we’re all volunteers, we all have jobs and families).

If you are using Facebook and Twitter (and whatever else), you can still follow us on those networks. Membership just allows us to email everyone without having to use other email systems or relying on Facebook (not everyone uses Facebook).

Thanks in advance for helping us reduce our workload. It is very much appreciated!

Cheers
Achim

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Where does the money go?

Jun 9, 2010 Donations, Fundraising, Updates

The short answer…  ALL OF IT goes to Karl

I just want to be crystal clear about where our donations and fund-raising dollars go.  Like I mentioned above, all of the money this project generates goes directly towards funding Karl’s home care.

The 24-hr home care that Karl needs is very costly… $5,000 per month.  Our health care system only provides a fraction of that (only 4 hrs a day).  That’s a huge burden on Karl’s parents, especially when you consider they are retired pensioners.

The FullWattage Benefit funds

Thanks to Cherelle Jardine’s effort and connections, the fine folks at the The Yale have graciously donated their facility and equipment at no cost to us. That means every penny from every ticket goes directly to Karl.

Future fund-raising events will be handled the same way.

No one gets paid

Everyone that is working on this project is a volunteer. No one gets paid. No one. The FullWattage Benefit at The Yale is totally pro bono. None of the bands are getting paid. The Yale will only make money on the sales of food and drinks.

All the effort and money that went into setting up and hosting the websites, organizing the events, and creating the marketing is all pro bono. That also includes any future marketing efforts.

PayPal and Bank Accounts

Currently we have a PayPal account set up in trust for Karl. It will be controlled by Misty, Karl’s mom.  Eventually we will have a Trust Fund set up through Misty’s bank and then donating will be a little easier and more direct (for those that prefer that method over PayPal).

Hope that clears up some questions about money.

Please let us know if you need more info.

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The Friends of Karl Watt is in full swing

Jun 8, 2010 Announcements

We’re finally alive and kicking!

The purpose of this foundation is to spread awareness about ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, but more importantly generate funding for Karl’s home care through donation (you can make a donation right from this website) and special events like the Full Wattage Benefit Concert (see the link in the navigation bar above for more info).

I’m very honoured to be doing this with Karl’s family, friends and especially Cherelle Jardine, a talented singer and songwriter from Richmond, BC. Karl played on Cherelle’s 2006 album Head Traffic. I’m looking forward to working with Karl’s friends, some of whom I have known since 1982, when I met Karl in grade 12 at Queen Elizabeth High School in Surrey, BC.

It’s open mic time!

I encourage everyone and anyone to register on this site, share your stories and thoughts, help promote our events and, if you can, please make a donation. Karl and his parents will be active contributors and will be sharing their experiences with the world about this terrible degenerative disease.

I’ll be monitoring this site to ensure no spam gets through. I’ll also share my experiences from time-to-time.

Tell everyone!

The best way to make this thing a success for Karl, his family, and people living with ALS is to tell everyone about it. Help spread the word! If you wan to get involved, contact us.

Peace
Achim

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