A Little Help from my Friends

Some family friends have had a rather trying series of events this last year culminating in the loss of their house to a fire on March 28th. Another friend of theirs has set up a GoFundMe account to help them out and the link to that is HERE. 

Nadi Qamar was born Spaulding Givens and has contributed quite a bit to the world of music in his 98 years on this Earth, having played with some of the greats like Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, Nina Simone and was an aid to Art Tatum.  He has several albums of his work with the likembi in the Smithsonian as well. 

The Qamars led a pretty quiet and simple life and as you can see from the GoFundMe page, they do not have enough to rebuild their home which was a modest home to begin with. "There was minimal insurance coverage on the house, which is not enough to get their home rebuilt. Nadi is in a wheel chair and Rose takes care of him. On top of losing the house, their vehicle is beyond repair. A good used vehicle would be a blessing to be able to purchase." In addition they have lost all Nadi's instruments, many of which, like the mama-likembi Nadi made for FESTAC are irreplaceable. 

Rose is very active in the right to life movement as well as staying involved in the local community when not caring for Nadi.
They have made a point of using their time and talents to educate youth about music, clean(drug free) living and respect for life.

Here is a video of Nadi helping his son with his senior recital a few years back: 

"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again." ~ Luke 6:38