New City Gas and Tea Time Are Building a School in Ethiopia
NEW CITY GAS BRINGS IN ZOMBOY TO PERFORM FEBRUARY 6TH WITH THE HELP OF TEA TIME.
This upcoming Saturday will see Zomboy play at New City Gas, but this is no ordinary event. My personal friend, Josh Broadman, is the founder behind Tea Time For The Homeless, a nonprofit organization based in Montreal. I sat down with Josh to learn more about how this event started, his organization’s history, and info about upcoming projects.
Tea Time and New City Gas have collided efforts to make a magical night take place filled of dub, bass, lasers, and more. Zomboy’s filthy and taunting style will definitely settle well in an unexpecting way with the crowd at New City.
Canadanightlife: Can you give our audience an explanation of your organization Tea Time?
Josh Broadman: I’m the founder of Tea Time, a non-profit organization responsible for raising funds for charitable causes around the world. All of our events are in Montreal, but our first major initiative was to support the education of Nepalese Children.
Josh Broadman: That was specifically run with an organization called Namaste Childrens Foundation. They aim for scholarship programs, women empowerment programs, and supporting education. We raised our first 5 thousand in six months.
Josh Broadman: From there we’ve moved to our next goal which is building a school in Ethiopia.
CNL: So how long have you been working on this project?
Josh Broadman: Over 2 years in total and 4 months working on building the school. This will be our first major initiative for the school though. We’ve had three smaller events, two with New City Gas and one with another Charity. We’re just over a 1,000 dollars raised right now.
CNL: Do you see yourself working again in the future with New City Gas?
Josh Broadman: New City Gas has really been trying to show how big the EDM community is. There are so many people coming to support these artists and so much money being put into these events. They want to show that they can give back, not only to the Montreal community, but around the world.
Josh Broadman: They are supporting important causes, such as mine, which is helping education for those in need. So yeah, absolutely! I see myself working with New City Gas again. This is our first major initiative together and I think they see themselves working with us in the future for bigger and better events.
CNL: How did you decide on Zomboy for an artist to bring in?
Josh Broadman: Well we wanted to look for an artist who would be different from the interests of the usual crowd. The venue generally attracts a big room house and commercial house audience. I wanted to bring in a diverse crowd to let them experience New City Gas with Dubstep.
Josh Broadman: I definitely feel people will be interested in this show. For instance, when Skrillex came for Osheaga’s Afterparty at New City Gas it sold out. Zomboy just seemed like the perfect fit to grab people’s attention.
CNL: How much are tickets to the show? Where can people buy tickets?
Josh Broadman: Tickets are 20 dollars and you can buy online or from myself. We also have a ticket giveaway through your website, which I’m pretty excited to see launched. [You can find the giveaway link here.]
CNL: How has the overall response been so far for the event? Have you found that people are excited?
Josh Broadman: So far New City Gas has made a few posts and there’s been a huge response. People are going crazy because it’s a little uncharacteristic of the venue to have this style of artist. From all my friends, family, and the people I’ve spoken to, everyone seems really excited.
Josh Broadman: New City Gas has also done countless events throughout the year, which has been really great. They did a Movember event in November to fundraise money and also a Toy Drive in the winter for the Children’s Hospital. They have really been trying to show that they can give back and I honestly think 2015 is going to be a big year for the venue.
CNL: Has New City Gas become one of your favourite venues in the city then?
Josh Broadman: Definitely, it’s a one of a kind venue. It can hold 2,500 people on it’s main floor and you can’t really find that anywhere else in Montreal. I’ve only had positive experiences there.
CNL: So what can everyone expect in 2015 with the ambitions of Tea Time For The Homeless?
Josh Broadman: Right now we’re planning our local talent show in late April. Last year’s event raised over 2,500 dollars, which was amazing! This next talent show will continue to fund the school in Ethiopia. There are a few more local projects and parties planned, but it’s all secretive as of now.
CNL: What is the total to build the school completely?
Josh Broadman: It costs 27,000 dollars to build the school. The great thing about this project is that we’re working with another non-profit called Kulam. They’ve built a school and several wells previously in Africa.
Photo of well built in Goradera, near school’s future location
Josh Broadman: The specific school we’re fundraising for is being built in Goradera, Ethiopia. We’re not hiring people from North America to build the school either. We’re employing people in Ethiopia, contractors, labour, locals, to work on this school for the next nine months. We really care about giving jobs to the locals there.
CNL: Have you or anyone within the organization previously visited the site?
Josh Broadman: The person in charge of Kulam has just built a well right beside where the school will be built. There is a bunch of surrounding villages around the area that will use the well and school to help build a real community.
The outside of an old school
CNL: Is this a long term goal or something that you see achievable soon in the future?
Josh Broadman: Our goal is to have a quick turn over, once we set a goal we want to complete it in the shortest amount of time. My personal goal is to have this done in the next six months. We feel all 27,000 is obtainable because we have so many events coming up. Certain things may come up that always make it take longer than expected.
Josh Broadman: Once the money’s received, it takes between six months to a year for the school to be fully built. So hopefully everything is done by this time next year.
CNL: Does anyone with Tea Time or Kulam intend to follow up in the next five years to see how the implementation has worked?
Josh Broadman: Definitely, you can’t simply go into Africa and decide that you want to build a school somewhere. It’s a whole process that we’ve been working on for the past few months, where you need government approval. Ethiopia has a Ministry of Education like we do, which takes over the school and employees teachers.
The old foundations of the school to be built on
Josh Broadman: We have people there on-site full time taking care of the school who work directly with Kulam. The owner of Kulam goes there a few times a year with his wife to visit the location. Several sponsors also are always interested to visit the school.
CNL: Is Kulam also a Montreal based organization? How did you become associated with them?
Josh Broadman: Yeah, it’s based in Montreal too. Someone connected me with the owner over Facebook. We first talked on the phone over an hour going back and forth with ideas. We met in person to plan how to achieve 27,000 dollars in the shortest period of time.
Josh Broadman: His organization definitely brings more validity to the whole situation. Whenever you partner with someone it strengthens the whole idea. We try to be as transparent as possible where the money is going. I’m constantly updating Facebook and Instagram to keep people in the loop with every decision I make.
Josh Broadman: I want people to feel like they’re part of the whole process. A lot of charities you can donate to and not know where the money has gone. We try to make it a continual process that you can follow with us. You can be part of our experience and we’re very open to people joining Tea Time. We want people to have ideas and see them act on those ideas in a positive light.
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