"Hi everyone…
Hope you are all doing well!!
There’s so much happening at the moment I don’t know where to start!!

The most exciting and important news is that Monica and I are now foster parents to a 12-year-old gipsy boy who was abandoned by his family and taken into care by the social services here in Alicante.
 His name is Juan and we had our first full day with him yesterday (Saturday the 4th) and after that he will be with us on weekends and during holidays.  We applied for this a year ago and it has taken weeks of classes and a lot of patience to prepare for it but now it’s done and we are both really excited!

We have also set up our foundation and it’s called “Esperanza” which means “hope”.  It is dedicated to helping anyone, anywhere at any time and in any way we can, focussing on people in desperate or dangerous situations.  We have the support of two local banks and a major ceramic factory and our first project will be to open a small shop in our nearby village which will be staffed entirely by handicapped people.  It will sell CDs, children's books and musical instrument small goods like strings, picks etc.

As you know there are degrees of disability and in many cases the only thing stopping handicapped people from having a relatively normal life is the social stigma, mixed with an understandable degree of apprehension.  For example, we have one good friend who has Downes Syndrome but she also has a black belt in Karate and can operate a computer as well as anyone I know.  She will be our first store manager!

We started the fund raising in Apeldoorn and the serious stuff will begin after January 1st when the accounts are set up.  All contributions will go to a special account and every donor will be able to access the account just to see what’s come in and gone out and they will receive a quarterly report on activity.  We will have a committee of five, made up of the bank reps, our accountant/administrator and ourselves and every application will go through the committee process.  Monica and I will make the final decisions.  I don’t think there is any better feeling than that of being able to help others in need.  Of course you don’t need a foundation to do it, we can all help each other if we care to but Esperanza will enable us to do it on a larger scale and enable everyone involved to be sure where the money goes.  This is not true of many charities, even some of the big ones!

AND HERE’S THE FUN PART…
We need a logo… no words, just an illustration of “HOPE” that we can incorporate into all of the foundation’s activities.  You don’t need to be graphic artist, something simple will do and if yours is the chosen entry Monica and I will place a €100.00 donation into the foundation account in your name.  So please feel free to send your ideas to us here.

Musically speaking, I am off to Moscow on the 6th for three “concerts” and two TV shows.  There will be a lot of my old road-buddies there so it looks like being a lot of fun.  When I get back it’s straight into the studio to start the last phase of “Blood On The Highway”.  I hope to be able to announce the incredible list of guest vocalists soon and I know you are going to love this record.  We now reckon that we’ll finish mixing it by January 6th and then go to Hamburg to master it.

On January 15th I begin producing Toni Rowland’s first CD here.  She is from South Africa, has a great voice and some very cool songs so I am looking for to that.

I just received the manuscript for the second edition of “When Too Many Dreams Come True” and I will be proofing it while I am travelling to and through Russia.  Membran plan to release it at the end of February along with “Blood On The Highway”.

Then there’s the tour and it’s expanding all the time so 2007 is already shaping up to be a busy year.

Well, I think that’s enough for now… but there will be more!

Take care and God bless you all
Ken
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