This Saturday, the Limestone City’s music scene is showing up to support Kingston doulas.
On Nov. 23 at 7 p.m., Kingston band The Gertrudes will open for The Weather Station and the Lemon Bucket Orchestra at The Spire for the Doula Support Foundation’s benefit concert.
The Journal spoke with co-founder, chairperson and director of doulas at the Doula Support Foundation, Laura Pascoe to talk about the event.
The benefit concert is a fundraising effort to raise the money necessary to pay doulas working with the foundation so they can provide services to clients unable to afford them on their own.
The Doula Support Foundation was started over a year ago in 2017.
“There’s a group of us doulas in Kingston that saw the need for folks that couldn’t afford to have doula care. We wanted to be able to provide that, but we weren’t able to provide that on a sustainable basis for free,” Pascoe said.
They decided to come together to form the foundation so they could provide these services and still make a living wage.
“We wanted to create a system whereby people who were categorized as low income […] making $40,000 or less […] would be eligible for receiving doula services,” Pascoe said. “Then the Doula Support Foundation compensates the doula so they can still have a small income.”
The benefit concert is an effort to invite the community out to hear Canadian bands, one of which is born and raised in Kingston.
“We felt that doing a concert, something that was a joyful celebration of coming together and having a good night out, would be a really great way of celebrating the Doula Support Foundation and the work that we do, but also bringing people in in a way that they won’t mind buying a ticket.”
When The Gertrudes were asked to participate in the event, they agreed instantly, feeling that the event and the cause were in line with everything they value as a group.
“Many of our family members that have given birth recently. Of all the children that the band are associated with, many of them have benefitted from pre- and post-natal support that doulas offer,” Greg Tilson, singer and guitarist for The Gertrudes, said in an interview with The Journal.
To support the foundation at the benefit concert, they’ll be performing their usual folk setlist consisting of covers and original songs.
“There’s an old-time bluegrassy feel to our music, and that’s actually the style we’re going to be playing on the 23rd,” the musician said.
“We’re thrilled with the idea of [the foundation’s] initiative to try to create living wages and to support the broader community by assisting with births and pre- and post-natal care.”
They say they’re honoured to be participating in this event, and plan to bring their modernized folk tunes to The Spire to show their support for the doulas of Kingston.
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