Every July, MusiCounts highlights our donors and partners that support our mission to make music education accessible across Canada. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to those that help make MusiCounts what it is today.

Meet Courtney and Steve — the hearts behind the annual charity show, Walterstock.

What part of MusiCounts’ mission do you resonate with the most?

Steve: The main part of MusiCounts that I like is that it supplies instruments or ways for kids to do music in the future. I've always liked anything to do with music. That's why we looked (MusiCounts) up in the first place.

Courtney: For me, I'm very aware that funding arts programs in Ontario vary by school board. They're not actually set by provincial or federal government. So sometimes schools in poor areas, their budget for the whole music program is $500. There's an inherent disparity between a lot of the different schools and access to music education. Knowing that (MusiCounts) actively works to bridge that gap is phenomenal.

Steve: I'll take credit for half of what she said. (laughs)

Tell us about how you help raise funds for MusiCounts? What's your experience been like?

Courtney: In December 2022, we lost a friend who was a huge figure in the Toronto music scene and he loved all sorts of music: dance, rock, metal, punk, folk, alternative. He'd camp out the day of concerts to get pictures of the bands. He passed in a pretty tragic way, so the community really wanted to honor his legacy. Steve reached out to me and said, “Look, this was his local. Let's do something”. So, we created Walterstock. Walterstock is really cool. It's a one-day, all-ages event. What's wonderful about it is so many people just donate their time and their effort.

Rock Pile donate the staff and the space itself. We've got, of course Steve, but Dom, Tony, Bernardet, Lorraine, Jesse, Aaron, Jake, Tyler, Justin and Nicola. We have all sorts of volunteers that help with the silent auctions and the raffles, running the doors. We get people and companies donating prizes like Uptown 66, Chaos for Canines, Dead Dog Records, Rock and Roll Over Kines, that kind of thing.

All of the bands donate their time as well. The format's really intense, I think it's 12:00 to 12:00. For the past three years, we've had 24 bands each day. They come in, they hit a short set, and they're off and the stage is changed in 5 minutes. Everyone works together well and they know that we're fundraising.

Steve here, he's like the clearing for all that. It works so well because of him, but also because of our community. We also worked with Walter’s family to figure out who would be the right recipients for this kind of effort, who's feeding our music community, but (MusiCounts) immediately came up as a first choice. When we explained what you do, they loved it.

We've also donated to a couple other children and youth organizations like Cabbagetown Community Arts, which does music lessons, and we've actually invited the kids to play a set at next year's event, their rock band program just started.

Steve has to fight off phone calls, messages, emails and texts like, “Can we play?” Because there's such a wonderful music community that's really willing to go out there and do this kind of work.

Do you have any words of encouragement for those who are looking to fundraise for MusiCounts? Why should they partner with MusiCounts?

Steve: I just say you guys are a great unit all the way. Very easy to deal with for one thing. Your cause is great and there's no hesitation in you guys offering your help in what we need and what we need to do to make it happen. I mean, when any kids are involved, that's the main thing for us anyway. So, I think you guys are just a great charity all the way around.

Courtney : Words of encouragement… I'll start with the first part of the question. The thing about music is it creates connections with people, right? It connects people despite their ages. It connects people across cultures, even across time. You'll hear kids listening to 60’s, soul, or you'll hear adults listening to newer stuff. If you're fundraising for MusiCounts, you can kind of dream up your own event. It doesn't matter what kind of music is going to be there or what kind of venue. People who want to fund raise can be as creative in that effort as they like.

If you're going to fundraise for music, you're supporting music arts education, right from preschool, kindergarten to higher education, university, teachers college — your effort is going to feed the whole ecosystem. The other thing to think about: even if you have a very small event, let's say you only raise $500 for MusiCounts, that is actually literally doubling some school’s music funding for their whole year. So it might seem little, but it's actually a really big deal.

There's something to be said: one day the kid that you fundraised for — you help pay for those lessons, instrument — one day you might see that kid on a big stage somewhere, or playing in a world class orchestra, or inventing a new genre of music. Who knows? But you get to be a part of that. And I think that's really important.

*Interview condensed for readability.