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Aid Still Required: Together we have the power to change the world:
Sitting in a renowned Los Angeles hipster hangout, surveying the crowd gathered for the CD-release party of a glam rocker, Andrea Herz Payne and Hunter Payne at first felt a little out of their element. “I’m sitting there thinking, this is totally not our crowd or the kind of place we go — a totally different scene,” Andrea recalls. “And then it hit me. I just thought, ‘Oh my God, these are my people. We are all here for the same reason.” Turns out that one day a glam rocker’s associate came across Aid Still Required, the organization founded by Andrea and Hunter Payne to raise money and awareness to help rebuild communities in the wake of natural disasters. He soon got in touch with Andrea and Hunter and told them he wanted to donate the proceeds of his CD release party to their organization.
This was not an isolated incident. Nor was it the first time the Paynes had experienced strangers generously offering their time, energy, and support to people who’d been victimized by strife and natural disaster. Aid Still Required has a slogan — a mantra, really — “together we have the power to change the world.” It speaks to the grassroots network of people that the organization has built to support its efforts. NBA superstars Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, and Tracy McGrady have all recorded public service announcements for the organization. Musicians from Paul McCartney to Norah Jones and Lucinda Williams have donated tracks for a benefit CD. In addition to celebrities, Aid Still Required relies on a grassroots network of everyday people who want to make a difference.
“It’s very moving to me that we can be a channel and a vehicle for people to come together,” Andrea says. “The fact that Aid Still Required has become an organic community of people coming together to help people across the globe who need it most still amazes me. It’s just surpassed our wildest dreams.”
Like a lot of dreams, this one started modestly, and took some unexpected turns. Between the time Hunter signed up for his Self-Expression and Leadership Program (SELP), and the start of the course, the Indian Ocean tsunami occurred—a disaster on an unprecedented scale. At the time, Hunter, an independent musician, was considering what his SELP project might be. His first thought was to get his musician friends to contribute tracks to a benefit CD to raise money for tsunami relief. “I thought we could get the whole thing done in three months,” Hunter says.
But then things began to snowball. Calls were coming in from all over the country with offers to be a part of the CD or to help out in other ways. “We started seeing the connections, realizing the real need people had to reach out and help,” Andrea recalls. “One day, in the midst of all this, Hunter and I looked at each other and said, ‘Maybe this isn’t a one-shot deal. Maybe we’ll do two or three CDs and maybe there’s going to be other projects. Maybe this is going to be our life.’”
The CD that was only going to include tracks from Hunter’s indie musician friends now contains songs from some of the biggest names in music, including Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello, and James Taylor. Some of the modest fundraising goals of the early days have followed a similarly upward trajectory. A few months ago Andrea and Hunter set their fundraising goals in the $100,000 range. Now they are looking at raising more than $200 million to fund aid projects and expanding the organization’s scope to helping the victims of other humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
The mission of the organization is clearly spelled out in its name: Aid Still Required. “Just because the aid needed is no longer making headlines, it doesn’t mean the need isn’t still there,” Andrea notes. “Our culture can be so focused on instant gratification, and if something isn’t on the news anymore people tend to forget about it. Even four years after the tsunami, people still need help. Same with Katrina, and of course, Darfur.”
See more articles about Grads Making a Difference.
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