RON SWARNER: SHOE BENEFIT SATURDAY >>>

It’s Earth Day.  Sweet Mother! You feel alive springing from your organic cotton sheets. You trip over your non-Chinese sweatshop produced Birk in your dark house â€" Al Gore Nightlite has long been ripped from your outlet.  Who cares! You skip through your solar powered morning, slicing through radishes and green beans and hey chard! you just yanked and everything is organically peachy.

Then you flip through your tangible newspaper.

Noooooo!!!!

Your eco-buzz is killed. There it is.  In print.  A dictator of a defenseless pip-squeak Third World country confiscated all the children’s shoes for his float in the Grand Keep Truckin’ Festival and Chili Cook-off.

How could this happen on your favorite planet of all time?  What can you do here in Tacoma 134 miles from NIKE’s headquarters? 

Then it hits you. Benefit. Let’s organize a benefit with shoes, music is always popular, raffles rule, apple bobbing, local artists, YouTube â€" yes.

Ah, but wait. Your organic day planner is loaded with words by circled numbers, and grandma has a bad corn, and Fido has gone Fredo so you must tack Have You Seen posters on telephone poles and …

Someone will organize it. You’re sure. You quickly check what brilliant thing Spew has written this morning …

There it is. The sun inches past your bedroom’s orange sheer curtain and illuminates your hand that clenches your computer mouse like it’s starring on Broadway. Your perky unicorns-in-the-sky self smiles.  An energized Tacoman hosts a shoe benefit for kids in Third World countries. You read the interview with glee.

WEEKLY VOLCANO: What is the concept behind Saturday’s Good Tacoma event?

AINSLEE K. MARSHALL: The concept is to get people to donate locally, but also see that there is a entire world outside of Tacoma that desperately needs our help right now.

Economically, we are very fortunate to live in the Pacific Northwest and I truly believe that by encouraging the residents of this community to give what they have, the level of kindness and depth of caring will only rise exponentially.

VOLCANO: So your benefit will include local charities, too?

MARSHALL: The cover will be $10 at the door, or $8 with a can of food. I will also be encouraging everyone to bring one brown bag containing items such as clothing, shoes, etc. I will then deliver all these goods to the Emergency Food Network in the Tacoma area the day after the event. Their mission is to "provide a reliable food supply so that no person in Pierce County goes hungry."

All the proceeds will be donated to a company based out of California called TOMS shoes. They are an organization dedicated to donating shoes to children in Third World countries who would otherwise never be able to afford them. I highly suggest checking out their site. You will be able to see a YouTube video of a shoe drop that they did in Africa last year that is absolutely amazing.

VOLCANO: Besides goodwill, what will be the event’s draw?

MARSHALL: The party will feature musical guests Tree Roots in the Basement, Freeze & Furcoats, The Toughtimes and the Mercy Pirates. I will also have a shoe raffle featuring shoes decorated by local artists, and sponsored by Republic Parking N.W. Inc. So far, I have 8 artists who have signed on including Daniel Blue and Zach Marvick. The raffle tickets will be $5, with all proceeds also going to help TOMS shoes.

VOLCANO: Do you have help?

MARSHALL: The outpouring of offers that I have received to help this event has been astounding. The shoe raffle has received sponsorship, the posters and ads have been comped, and the space by the Frieghthouse Square that I am renting has been given to me at a ridiculously low price. This means that the funds from this event will be going directly to the cause. It is a beautiful thing to watch what lengths people will go to in the name of being "Good."

VOLCANO: Where is the space?

MARSHALL: The show will take place Saturday, April 26, at 6 p.m., in “The Ballroom” located on the corner of East C Street and 25th Street. The venue is one block before Freighthouse Square, which is an awesome location since the LINK runs directly down 25th Street and the bus terminal is only a block ahead.

VOLCANO: Thanks Ainslee. Good Tacoma sounds like a worthy cause and a fun time.

You wipe you tears with your Natracare Organic Cotton Intimate Wipes and circle Saturday in your day planner. Equilibrium has returned on your Earth Day. You ride off on your bike into the rain with two Smiley Faces drawn on the top of your Birk straps. 

It’s going to be a good day.