New York Fellow Joseph Stanley Establishes “Music for the Mission”
Cite as 4 Litigation Commentary & Rev. 183 (November/December 2011)
By Joseph P. Stanley
Music for the Mission is a concept that arose out of my long term commitment to help those less fortunate in our local communities. It was out of my own personal experiences that I formed a connection with the Rescue Mission in Syracuse, New York.
The Rescue Mission is an organization with a principal interest in helping the homeless and hungry through various programs including emergency shelter, food, and employment assistance. There is a wide array of reasons that people reach out to the Rescue Mission for help. Some suffer from addiction, others with mental or physical illnesses, and those that have simply fallen on hard times.
Personally, I have seen the effects of alcoholism in my extended family and sought to help others that have found themselves struggling with addiction. I began volunteering my time at the Rescue Mission by offering legal services to those at the facility. The more time I spent there, the more I came to realize we needed to raise the awareness of the homeless and hungry in our community. Over time, the idea of Music for the Mission came to fruition.
Music for the Mission was established with the notion that we could get our community involved in helping the less fortunate through the universal language of music. There is a common good among people in that they want to help others but perhaps they don’t have time to volunteer or the funds to donate; music however is one of the simplest ways to bring people together for a cause. The goal: to obtain participation from those who have a passion for music, those that play music and those that have a general interest in our organization.
The first event was truly a learning experience. The organizers, most who had no experience in planning an event of this nature, organized, scheduled, booked and presented a concert with two local acts (Just A Memory, f.n.a. Augustine and Jason Bean) and three national recording artists (Chris Trapper, Greg Laswell and Butterfly Boucher). We learned the difficulties in planning a charitable event with an extremely limited budget. More importantly, we learned that there are an unbelievable number of people in our community that reached out to help make our concert a success.
From that eye-opening experience we slowly expanded our events to the Binghamton and Watertown areas of New York. We utilize the law firm advertising base to promote these charitable events and have encouraged all of our partners to participate in helping our cause.
Through the tremendous efforts of volunteers and the selfless help of my advertising partners, we have been able to sponsor, partner with and become a part of various concerts, musical-themed movie events, festivals and more. We have been able to send a message that none of us are immune to being homeless or going hungry. The folks at the Rescue Mission, the people you see on the street could be any one of us because they were one of us. We continue to push forward and expand this charitable organization with the hope of helping many more members of our community.
A native of Syracuse New York, Joe holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the college of Environmental Sciences and Forestry and graduated Summa Cum Laude from the Syracuse University's law school in 1981. He is licensed to practice in all New York State and Federal Trial Courts. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association, Onondaga County Bar Association and the American Association for Justice, NYSLTA Academy of Trial Lawyers. He is Board Certified in Civil Trial Practice by the American Board of Trial Advocacy. Joe is an advocate for the injured who has litigated cases involving car accidents, medical malpractice, product failure, construction site injuries, and more. His reputation as a meticulous litigator with a history of success is matched by his ability to connect with his clients personally while fighting for their compensation. Joe lives in Skaneateles, New York with his wife, two sons and a daughter.
