HeadCount announced a new addition to the Participation Row activism village on the summer Dead & Company tour kicking off today.
March for Our Lives, the movement and organization started by high school students who survived the mass shooting in Parkland FL, will have a booth at every Dead & Co. show on the summer tour.
Deadheads visiting the booth will have a chance to meet alumni of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and take a photo with messages about voting.
This all started when Parkland students attended the Dead & Co. concert in Sunrise, FL and met each member of the band. Bob Weir encouraged the students to join forces with HeadCount, captured in this video here.
HeadCount then ran voter registration efforts at the March for Our Lives demonstrations around the country on March 24th, registering more than 5,000 people. And student activist David Hogg worked with HeadCount to organize voter registration drives at more than 1,000 high schools in the last few weeks.
Making March for our Lives a featured guest on Participation Row, was a natural next step.
Here's a quote if it's helpful
“We know Bobby and the whole band were really moved by the Parkland kids," said HeadCount executive director Andy Bernstein. “And working with these kids to organize voter registration dirves has been an amazing experience for HeadCount. So bringing them on Dead & Co. tour seemed like a perfect way to tie this all together."
The Participation Row activism village, co-organized by HeadCount and the environmental group REVERB, has been part of every Dead & Co tour dating back to the band's debut Fall 2015. March for Our Lives will be joined at various stops on the tour by ”Dead Family" non-profit organizations including Wavy Gravy's SEVA, the Rainforest Action Network, and the Owsley Stanley Foundation.
Fans who take actions with three non-profits will also have a chance to win a signed D’Angelico guitar, and receive a numbered, limited edition VOTE pin. The pins, designed in the style of the famous "LOVE" sculpture but with a Steal Your Face as an O, were donated by the Dead-centric accounting firm Schulman Lobel.
A charity auction at each tour stop will also raise funds for the participating organizations. To date, HeadCount's Dead & Co. auctions have generated over $500,000 for over 40 different charities.
