"Moved by music Broomfield resident, small group of Phish fans founded growing Mockingbird Foundation"

From the Broomfield (CO) Enterprise, 2/11/04:

Marcie Vogel is a self-described "music geek." The Broomfield resident and fan of the Vermont-based jam band Phish has no trouble finding the page in The Phish Companion that denotes a life-changing concert experience. Page 278. Dec. 7, 1989. The 8X10 Club. Baltimore, Md.

"That was such a great show," Vogel says while fingering the page.

Little did she know then, but the former East Coast resident took the first step toward the rest of her life that night. Eight years later she and a handful of Internet Phish fans and friends founded The Mockingbird Foundation, a non-profit organization that raises funds for youth music programs in the community and schools.

Now in its seventh year of existence, the foundation is about to take a giant step forward. One year after launching LivePhish.com, the band announced that as of Jan. 1 all proceeds from the service will go the foundation. In other words, when fans pay to download live Phish shows from the site, that money will be funneled to the organization's charities.

"It's exciting ... to think that a person can come to a Phish concert and know that all the profits from the subsequent downloads of our music will go directly into children's music programs," guitarist Trey Anastasio said in a released statement. "That fact that the Mockingbird Foundation was created by Phish fans makes it all the more inspirational to us."

The announcement was music to the ears of Vogel and other founding members of the non-profit, which has grown from a grassroots, Internet-only fan effort to a group with an office [sic - the Foundation has no office], a board of directors and nearly $200,000 in distributed grant money.

The money raised by the online sale of Phish shows could mean an influx of up to $1 million for the group. "I can't believe we did this," said Vogel, who moved to Broomfield in 2001 with her husband, Christian Frahm, who owns Broomfield sandwich shop The Deli Zone. "This was a huge experiment in how to work virtually. It took a long time and until last year, all of us had never met in person."

Vogel and fellow founding members Ellis Goddard (now president and executive director), Charlie Dirksen, Dan Purcell, David Steinberg, Craig Delucia, Eddie Dinel, Dave Donohue, Mark Goldberg, Joe Rioux and John Wood hope to raise awareness of the organization beyond the books and CD they have distributed in the past. While both the band guide The Phish Companion and the tribute CD "Sharin' In The Groove" (which features Dave Matthews, Arlo Guthrie, Jimmy Buffet and others) have kept the group afloat since 1997, the new money will allow the foundation to expand its mission.

Vogel hopes that includes Colorado, which to this point hasn't received any grant money from the group.

"It's appalling you can grow up and go to school and not have a music class," said Vogel, whose love of music caused her to move to Colorado to work for The String Cheese Incident and then Next Level Promotions. "(Music) is who I am and why I'm the way I am."

A new edition of "The Phish Companion" is scheduled to be released this spring, Vogel said, and the group is actively seeking volunteers and those interested in receiving grant money. Information on both can be found at www.mockingbirdfoundation.org.

"No one here seems to know about (the foundation)," Vogel said. "Every single person who goes to a Phish show should know that if they download it, that money is going to kids' music programs. Music and arts programs in the schools are such an important part of education. We just want to do whatever we can to help them."

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