So we’re hoping to build, like, an exchange program. So I got the idea that, how about we take some of our kids from Vermont down to New York for a DJ camp, and then this summer, they can send some kids up to us with our artists. Building Beats does the same type of DJ camps in New York that we do in Saint Albans.
So this is a Dave Rider Initiative for sure I’m not saying that boastfully, but I’m saying that I’m proud of the fact that the rest of my board was supportive of me. “I had an idea, and I asked our board if we could do this, and they said yes. One of the projects he is currently working on is a field trip in which the foundation would send six BFA students to Brooklyn to a DJ camp hosted by a foundation called Building Beats. One of the missions that Rider works on are the DJ camps. But, that’s how we work as an organization,” Rider said. So we have a multi-tiered mission, really four different lanes of services that are very different from each other. And, we do DJ camps here and in Burlington for students to develop music making and music production skills. We do skate camps down at the skatepark in Burlington that’s named after Andy. We do programming at the King Street Youth Center in Burlington, although that work is with new Americans or refugees from all over the world. So part of our mission is bone marrow registry for people to become potential bone marrow donors to literally save someone’s life. As a racial minority, it was very difficult for Andy to get bone marrow because he was Filipino, African American, white, it was super hard to have that match.
So Andy got leukemia, and he received a bone marrow transplant, and that actually helped him get better. “And having said that, we have many different missions within the foundation. Rider also explained the different missions for the Friends for A-Dog Foundation. And that’s why I’m involved in it,” Rider said. So if I can do a little something to help kids, help them become that person that is already inside them, in which they’re true to their values and beliefs and talents, that’s kind of a cool thing to do. So I’ve just always respected that and admired that and Andy and all artists for that matter. To me, sometimes that can be an act of bravery, especially when your authentic self doesn’t look like 99 percent of everyone else’s authentic selves. And we’re so proud of our students when they become that real person that they really are, that authentic person. And he was kind of a brave pioneer as an artist, true to his identity as an artist. No one was into hip-hop in Saint Albans 30 years ago, it just wasn’t here.
“Andy was a person who was a creative artist who was very open about the kind of artist he was, even when he knew that it made him, like, a minority. Rider explained the purpose of the foundation, as well as why he is involved. This scholarship goes to a graduating senior who has “a passion for creating music, visual art, videography/photography, dance.” So I was asked to take over the scholarship for the foundation, and then since then I have, kind of, developed for the program,” Rider said.Īs Rider mentioned, one of the missions of the foundation is to give a BFA student a scholarship in Andy’s memory. And then after he passed away, I decided to get involved with the program, specifically with the scholarship at BFA. I wouldn’t talk with him, I wouldn’t say I had a friendship with him but I was just like a fan. I enjoyed going to hear him play music, I used to enjoy going to hear him DJ. “Well, I was Andy’s teacher 27 years ago. He also is a large part of the Friends for A_Dog Foundation. When Andy passed away in December 2013, the foundation became a non-profit organization in order to remember him.ĭavid Rider, history teacher at BFA, was Andy’s former teacher. The Friends for A_Dog Foundation helped Andy with benefits and his bone marrow transplant. Andy was mixed race, therefore his possibility of finding a bone marrow donor was 1 in 20 million. The only cure was a bone marrow transplant. In December 2012, he was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He was known for his musical talent as a DJ and turntablist. Andy “A-Dog” Williams was a creative and generous man with a passion for music, skateboarding, and art.
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