Site Updates & Penny contest

As you may have noticed, I’ve been adding a lot of new content to the blog. If you haven’t noticed, it’s because I have been back dating everything. All the set lists I could find (so far) have been back dated to the date of the show – all the way back to 1998’s Albertane Tour. A list of what is missing is “coming soon” (Or if you are a hanson.net member, head on over to Tour Talk and check out my posts there – I have also posted some lists in the livejournal hanson community)

A new layout will be coming to hansontickets.com shortly – I hope to have it done by the time tour dates are released for the Fall Tour – or by the time the tour kicks off. (Without knowing specifics its hard to judge if I’ll get it done in time for the announcement of dates!)

I can give you a bit of a “sneak peak” of what is going to be posted – all the dates will not only have the tickets (where available) posted, but will also have the set lists posted (where available) Also being posted will be checklists so you can keep track of what songs you have heard live. I am working on checklists now for cover songs and original Hanson songs by album. These will be PDFs that you can print out and add to your journal, scrapbook, etc. In order to keep track of what you have and haven’t heard (in case you ever get the chance to request a song, you’ll know which ones to pick!)

Everything is being re-vamped and will be split up by years, not by tours and promo/official. That seemed to confuse a lot of people so I am hoping listing everything by years will make the site a bit easier to navigate.

I have received no entries yet for the penny contest. You have just under 2 weeks to get your creative juices flowing. Information on the contest can be found in the sticky post above. Entries must be in by June 30th. If we receive no entries, the penny fundraiser will be postponed, but I do intend to try and come up with something for a Music in Schools US charity.

Penny Design Contest

Most of you are aware that HansonTickets.com sponsored an “I Have Hope” Penny with proceeds from its sales going to HIVSA.

We have decided to do this again, this time for a charity based in the USA. (Charity is still TBD but it will be to benefit music education in schools – leave suggestions in the comments)

We will be holding a design contest so the final product will be designed by a hansontickets.com / hansontickets blog viewer!

Rules: (subject to change)
-No more than 5 entries can be submitted per person
-Entries will be collected until June 30, 2009
-Engraver reserves the right to modify the design in order for it to work better on such a small medium (penny)
-No copyrighted materials can be used
-Design should in some way be Hanson-related
-Winner can be from USA or over seas – everyone is welcome to participate
-A contest entry form will be posted on this site in the upcoming weeks as a .pdf.
-All submissions will need to be emailed (will be posted with the entry form)
Entries can be hand-drawn and then scanned in for a submission or computer generated.

Don’t worry if you’re not that great of an artist. We will be picking a very talented engraver (TBA) who can work with what you submit and polish it up to be a great design.

Winner will receive 5 copies of their design on a penny as well as 1 on a nickel.

The top 5 or 10 designs (depending on overall number of submissions) will be narrowed down by the hansontickets.com staff & other trusted friends. There will be final voting through this blog. Depending on the number of entries, there may be several rounds of voting. Voting will occur in July and possibly into August.

We are looking to have the final product ready for sale in the Fall – hopefully around the time Hanson will be touring.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment so when I answer everyone will see it.

New Myspace Blog

Follow Your Lead

Hanson is in the process of setting up a donation box right on their myspace page so it is easy to donate. Check out their blog for more details

Also – dont forget that hansontickets is selling pennies for donations to HIVSA. Only a little more than 30 pennies are left and I am anxious to make the next donation!

HIVSA pennies

Last night, our second donation amount surpassed our first! We have currently raised $268 for HIVSA in this second wave of fund raising, bringing our total to over $500!!!

When I started this project, I had a goal of selling 300 pennies and raising at least $250. Now, with under 40 pennies left to be sold – I have DOUBLED that goal and I could not be happier.

I have been overwhelmed with the amount of support I have gotten and really hope these last few pennies sell quickly – as I can not wait to get this next donation sent over to Global Strategies so that it can be passed along to HIVSA.

Due to the success of this project, I do intend on having another custom penny created. I’m not sure yet what the design will be or what charity I will be fund raising for at this point, so please if you have any idea, leave me a comment!

For more information on the I Find Hope pennies, check out HansonTickets’ donation page.

Update on I Find Hope pennies

Amount of pennies left: Around 50

Current donation amount: Almost $250.

As I previously had mentioned – Global Strategies will be forwarding whatever is raised over to HIVSA. They have also sent me a letter in recognition of the first donation which can be viewed on the donation thanks page.

HIVSA pennies

Late last year, Hansontickets.com sponsored the creation of some ‘Hanson pennies’ which are being sold for a minimum donation of $1 per penny. In March, we reached our initial goal of $250+ and a check was mailed to HIVSA via Global Strategies for $265.

These pennies were limited to a pressing of 300 and there are approximately 60 left. For more information, check out the DONATE page on hansontickets.com, or email NgiNeThemba@hansontickets.com.

The second and final donation will be mailed out once all the pennies are gone and is currently approximately $230, which means that our total donation will be over $500!

In the near future I will be posting the letter I recently received from Global Strategies as some seemed to doubt that the money was actually going to be making its way to HIVSA, as we promised.

We are considering creating a 2nd penny for 2009 – if anyone has any ideas on (Hanson related) charities or designs – please comment!