Simple Plan on the challenges of creating the Simple Plan Foundation
Later this year, Simple Plan will reach the one million dollar donation mark with their Simple Plan Foundation. Over the weekend, the band spoke about what they had to overcome for the charity to become a success and about a charitable performance that they would later call, "One of the highlights of [their] careers."
See more: Simple Plan honoured with Juno Humanitarian Award
After receiving the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award at this past weekend's 2012 Juno Awards, Simple Plan took the time to talk to Yahoo! Canada Music about the obstacles they faced when trying to start their foundation.
"The biggest challenge, I think, was the fact that we had no clue what we were getting involved in," lead guitarist Jeff Stinco said. "When we started the foundation, we thought that it would be fairly easy to raise money [and] generate awareness. [However,] we realized that we needed to have a team there and present because it [takes] a lot of time."
See more: Juno Awards 2012 memorable moments
The band credited drummer Chuck Comeau's parents as the ones they turned to for assistance in running the organization as well as the contribution from their volunteers.
"We were fortunate enough to have Chuck's parents help out on a daily basis responding to every single email, reading letters and completing every task that needed to be done," Stinco said. Adding, "This foundation is completely volunteer based so, that was the biggest challenge, building that team. It was amazing to see how many people wanted to give back and help us out."
One of the foundation's most interesting events was the band's joint effort with L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) last September. Raising more than $300,000, the experience was one of the most exhilarating concerts the band has ever performed and also one of the most stressful.
See more: Notable performances at the 2012 Juno Awards
"It was crazy [and] I almost had a panic attack before going on stage," bassist David Desrosiers said. "I was like, 'Oh my God, there's 19 musicians that are really good at what they do and we're going on and we have to make it all work together.' It was really a challenge but the conductor was amazing."
"I couldn't really appreciate it until it was over, " Simple Plan's frontman, Pierre Bouvier, added. "It was very nerve-racking and intimidating but once it was all done, it was like, this is so amazing. We should do it again, it was a great experience and definitely one of the highlights of our careers."
Check out Simple Plan performing "This Song Saved My Life" with OSM featured below.
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