In 1999 my younger brother Jeff started a clothing and toy drive for the native people living on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. You can go to the following web page and read a little bit about every year if you would like. If you do please read the first posting I think it is the best. http://essencialdreams.com/children.htm Jeff is remarkable person in many ways. When he was little he was always interested in playing the drums. One day when he was 11 or 12 he was watching my older brother Bob and I playing guitar. We took a break and Jeff just picked up my guitar and started playing. I had heard about such things before but I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was in college and didn't have much money but I scraped some cash together and bought him an electric guitar for $15.00 the next day. Since then he has developed into one of the best electric guitarists I have ever heard, period. Right now he is primarily performing with Erin Higgins in southwestern Ohio, but he has also had some great bands, least of which was Love Junkie http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=158408210 At 19 Jeff had a bought with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and through some strange complications he lost approximately 98 percent of his vision. In spite of this challenge he has developed a career as a performing musician, teacher and recording engineer. Every month he also provides a CD's worth of sound beds, jingles and parody songs for AM radio distribution across the US. He has an incredible work ethic but he works very hard to make a living. While many of us are content to either enjoy our success or complain about our lack of success, 8 years ago Jeff decided to initiate a clothing and relief drive for the Lakota Sioux. The success of this drive has been over whelming, and thanks to some of his dear friends and some generous corporate support he has been successful in delivering semi truckloads of goods to these folks who are in very dire straights. This spring, Jeff had some very serious medical complications associated with Histoplasmosis and he nearly died. He was severely weaken and his road to recovery in light of his work load had been arduous. Even so this year Jeff has again resumed his relief drive and for the first time, he has been invited to ride along with the trucker to deliver the 40 plus pallets of clothing toys and house hold commodities. They are leaving on the 11 th of December and returning on the 15th While Jeff is really excited to go I am asking if you could just take a moment to send a positive thought or prayer his way to grant him a safe journey and return. Thank You Steve Madewell