While many teenagers busily await their birthday to be showered with gifts and attention, Diamond Bar High School senior Jesse Chow has been doing quite the opposite. To celebrate his 18th birthday, Chow and his team of five put together a charity concert held last Friday at the DBHS Theater donating all of the profits to the nonprofit charity: water.
“I wanted to raise money to donate, so for my birthday, I asked my friends to donate money to charity instead of buying me gifts,” Chow commented.
Chow has been donating money to the group charity: water since his 14th birthday, and has raised a total of $4,000 since. In previous years, Chow used various small scale tactics to raise money for the charity, such as making birthday invites advertising the cause, or shooting videos asking his friends to donate money. For his 18th birthday, however, Chow wanted to “share his passion and give back to the community,” so a benefit concert seemed ideal.
Chow had originally planned to do the event last year, but did not have the resources and the team to help him with it, so this year, he began work on the project in October.
He first began by forming a team, consisting of DBHS students Bryanna Lim, James Cruz, April Hong, Phillip Lee, and Dana Lee to help him plan the event.
He then went through a tedious and prolonging process of filling out various legal documents and going through paperwork to obtain permission to the hold the concert at the school. In order to hold the event on campus, Chow needed a provision to support and work the event. After approaching a few organizations, Chow was able to convince Peer Counseling to help organize and run the event.
The next step was to gather sponsors and funds to cover the budget required before the concert. Chow gathered many sponsors through website Indiegogo, which allows people internationally to raise money for businesses, music, art, or in Chow’s case, special events. Many of the sponsors, including Creatividy, HUTCH, and Bait, which are all clothing brands, donated some of their products to raffle off at the concert.
With the help of Peer Counseling, the concert raised a grand total of $5,700, much more than the $2,000 goal Chow was aiming for. Some of the performers in the concert included You Tube celebrities Sorah Yang, Olivia Thai, Adanna Duru, and Prime D. The show also featured various DBHS students, such as Jacqueline Aluning, Yasi Hekmat, Tiffany Ding, and many All-male members.
Charity: water is a non-profit organization that donates 100 percent of its money to provide water for Third World countries. Chow chose this charity because “it was based on the idea that all of the money raised would be donated to charity.” Charity: water actually send proof, such as GPS coordinates and pictures to verify that all of the money donated is being used for the cause.
“I’m really proud of Jesse for putting this whole event together. It turned out to be such a great success. Happy belated birthday, Jesse!” Aaron Lim, an attendee and friend of Chow’s, said.