Music with a Purpose | Community Spotlight: Nate Ostrowski

Community Spotlight: Nate Ostrowski | Music with a Purpose

This upcoming show in April will be your fifth event. How has Music with a Purpose grown since your first show, and what impact have you seen so far? 

There are three main areas of growth I’m really proud of. First is the growth of the foundation of our organization and I have amazing board members and project managers to thank for that. Second is growth in our community. We have built amazing relationships with local businesses and other non profit organizations and have been working with them to grow together. Which leads me into the third topic of growth in our events. With the growth of relationships in the community, it has spilled into the growth of our events, allowing more businesses and organizations, share their passion as vendors at our events. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in organizing these benefit shows, and how have you overcome them? 

I’m sure a lot of start up nonprofits can attest to this, but one of the biggest challenges is funding, so we had to create a way to overcome this challenge so we put together an awesome sponsorship program so that people and businesses in our community can be part of our purpose of helping others.

Can you share any stories about the veterans you’ve helped through these events? How have these shows made a difference in their lives? 

We sent a Vietnam veteran on a retreat from the third show we did, and he shared that for the first time in his life, he felt like he came home from Vietnam. When he got back from his retreat, he sold most of his stuff and is currently traveling the world. Another veteran we helped is now a project manager for our organization. The last veteran we sent on a retreat is a local veteran who also runs a non profit called Green Spirit Healings and we are proud to work together with that organization.

Do you partner with any local businesses, artists, or organizations to make these events happen? How can the community get involved? 

We have had amazing local businesses participate in our mission through our sponsorship program and we also have had amazing local businesses and local entrepreneurs participate with our events by becoming vendors. We also always have at least two artists live painting at our events, this next event we are going to have three. We really enjoy creating a platform so our local artists can be seen.

We are going to be posting a schedule of the event a week before on our social media, but the first segment of this event, we want to focus on the vendors that came out and supported us. We also have some veterans that will be speaking in between bands and we always have some awesome things to raffle off as well. We will have a food truck so come hungry and support the locals. 

How do you see Music with a Purpose evolving in the future? Are there any new initiatives or ideas you’re working on?  

One of our focuses moving forward is working with people struggling with addictions. As a former addict, addiction and sobriety holds a special place for me. I also want to expand into different music genres to bring the community together with.

What does success look like for you and Music with a Purpose in the long run? What impact do you hope to achieve? 

Success to me is to be able to provide the community of Tucson with live music all while raising money to continue helping anybody in need.

Where can people follow Music with a Purpose on social media, and what’s the best way to contact you for more information, to get involved or contribute? 

You can find us on Facebook at- “Music With A Purpose” and on Instagram at- “music with a purpose tucson” or our website at- musicwithapurpose.org. Donations can be made on our website on the top right corner of our page with our “Donate” button. You can also email me at : musicwithapurpose.nate@gmail.com.