Yes, there will be a Fright Noise IV, we will start making those plans as soon as we decompress from this one. Make sure we get things booked earlier, we can make more plans.
I believe the course will be switched up next year, the layout made sense but it didn’t – I will go out to the park this weekend to see how to get the 500m with the main pavilion as the focal point.
Another Fright Noise in the books! By all accounts it was very successful. One of the challenges of having an event like this where there are no registrations is getting an accurate count, you end up estimating.
With that thought in mind, we had 26 people sign in online, but another 40 at the registration table. Awesome, 66 people! Well, we had folks who brought their children and didn’t register, at least two families, general walk ups, people who brought friends – that is all awesome. Plus another 10 who participated in support and the walk. All said we were over 100 people, that is 20 more than last year.
The support from the community is amazing. Cash donations, checks, online, right now are over $2,000 with more coming in – that is even better!
I will be attending an upcoming Town Council Meeting to thank and present preliminary totals!
Welcome back! It has been a minute since we have updated. Busy time of year between “real” work and other endeavors. It’s increasingly difficult to make time for job changes, track and field, and Silent Noise. They all work to support the other. Our mission is still to be in the community presenting support for suicide prevention and awareness.
What’s coming up?
Post-Fright Noise, an event with Nicole is possible with a stream on Twitch.
UPDATE on Fright Noise III – bigger, better, uncut – oops, the Town has granted our permit for the use of Central Park on October 27. More room means more people can join us! Looking for vendors, food, whatever, and, a few willing volunteers to help setup on the day.
The route will be 500meters (still) all are welcome, come in costume, bring the children, dogs, iguanas, pet Godzilla – whatever! After the event, we can share stories at New Oberpfalz Brewing on Main! We do have the pavilion if the weather is not so nice.
Location change for Fright Noise III – bigger and better. Keeping with this thought, I will be at the Griffith Town Council Meeting on Tuesday, July 2 to give a proposal on Fright Noise III.
What’s on Deck?
We are working on one more event for October 26, not sure how that will go, stay tuned.
Griffith Unified Track or Treat night at the High School. Fright Noise will be there on Wednesday, October 23 to see if we can up the spooky! Lots of organizations will be present as well as over 500 trick or treaters!
Griffith Police Safety and Community Day – another year of having a booth to promote Fright Noise III and share information among many other organizations.
Return to Rockopelli – great day of music and meeting new people. It is a highlight of the summer months, we are always honored to be part of this event!
We are working on some very intriguing plans for Summer 2025, maybe, if we can get it organized, a special plan for this summer – gotta move fast on that.
We have applied to table at a couple of other festivals, don’t want to announce if it isn’t going to happen.
An update regarding financial position, these are unaudited numbers. Silent Noise was incorporated in April of 2023, as of January 23, 2024, we have had income of $6,179.66. Our expenses have been $4,457.86. Of those “expenses,” $2,151.65 was donated to various charities in support of suicide prevention. Another $1,800 was used to provide fliers, wristbands, stickers, display fees, for our tables at various events throughout the summer/fall. Other expenses included setup of website, development of Dwight Noise CDs, and other supplies needed for outreach. No monies were allocated for salaries. The only direct payment to individuals was for entertainment at the Fright Noise event. Transparency is critical to an organization such as ours. The current bank balance we have is $1,721.80. That is a deliberate decision to help us have funds available when we prepare on year 3 of tabling. This does not happen without the generosity of our supporters. There are many choices out there for non-profits, we appreciate any amount donated. Thank you!
On December 9, a group on Twitch and Nicole held a charity livestream to benefit Silent Noise, they raised over $2,000 for our group. Thank you!
Silent Noise sponsored a tree for the annual Christmas Tree Walk in Griffith. Proceeds from the sponsorship go to the Griffith Animal Shelter.
Fright Noise – The Sequel has crossed the finish line. Despite the chilly weather and threat of rain, it was a bigger success than year 1. Thank you!
To break it down because I truly believe in transparency:
33 participants signed up through the runsignup link – as a side note – next year we will find a different provider – not a fan of all the steps needed to register and the service fee.
Of the 33 who signed up, 24 participated at the event, we had others who did the “virtual” event.
Our walkups totalled 30 people. For the actual run, many chose to stay out of the weather, about 35 did the run.
We had, best guess, ten children participate – they were not required to register.
Those who setup and volunteered were allowed to participate without registrations. This includes our music guests. That was another 12 people.
Not an overly exaggerated total but we would have 76 participants, add those who could not make it because they donated for their registrations – brings us over 80.
As far as financials – still working on those. Total pre-registration was $1,400, walk ups were another $600. This year all expenses were covered through Silent Noise (I bankrolled a substantial portion last year).
Thank you!
When we broke down the studio where Dwight was living, we had some issues with the peripheral hard drives he was using. We were able to recover the data off of one of the drives – had material from around 2010 to 2015. The other has a power supply issue, hoping to be able to figure out which piece of the board is not getting power and get it restored.
Recently we had a table at the American Society for Suicide Prevention, Northwest Indiana Out of the Darkness Walk. We have worked with this group for two years now. Tremendous event with participants being those who have survived suicide or have lost loved ones to suicide.
We had the fun time of tabling at the 2023 Griffith Track or Treat. Over 450 “track or treaters” came by our table where we had information, wristbands, and, of course, candy. Proceeds for this event benefitted the Griffith High School Unified Sports Programs – Champions Together!
September 22/23, we were honored to be able to table at Harvest Festival in Winfield. Two beautiful days of music, arts, crafts, three stages, beautiful people and conversations! What a tremendous experience for us – our first (hopefully not last) opportunity to be at a festival of this caliber! Thank You!
Last weekend we participated in Central Market and the Griffith Police Safety and Community Day! Met many people, made connections for the future with different organizations! Great time!
Not Dead Yet! has finally been submitted for pressing and release, should have it by Harvest Fest. Interested? All Three CD’s are $20! UPDATE – Not Dead Yet! is out on CD and available!
Gearing up for Fright Noise – here are some items we could use (donated if at all possible, honesty? less we have to pay for is more we can donate to other groups). Risers for stage – two would be great. Would love to have some live music or better sound than last year which means a sound system – nothing huge – amp, speakers, nothing fancy – this isn’t a taylor swift show. Chips/Snacks to go with the hotdogs and buns that are being donated.
If you or your organization/company would like to sponsor, let me know. Sponsorships start at $50 and a rest stop can be sponsored for $250.
No Central Market last weekend due to Rock N Rail Festival. We will be back at it again this Friday – only two more this season – stop by and visit us. Perhaps it’s time for a little Spooky Noise at Central Market?
Thank you to the Lowell High School Alumni and Football Program for their generous donation to Silent Noise. RDP!
Not Dead Yet is finally in production. These are a couple of originals Dwight was working on for an EP, all cuts remastered by Region Buzz 219. Thanks Nick and Chad, check these guys out for your sound engineering needs. Local artists! These should be available by the September 15 market. In addition to the remastered cuts, a little surprise special song.
This week – Central Market on Friday – starts at 5 pm, we tear down at 10 pm. Saturday we will have a table at the Griffith Community Event. Starts at 11 am and ends at 4 pm.
Coming up? Final Central Market on the 15th. We are tabling at Harvest Fest in Winfield this year – will be a great event!
New materials from SAMHSA arrived yesterday – we now have 988 “Hope” magnets as well as more stickers.
We also received a couple of orders of new wristbands – one a cool glow in the dark!
Your donations help us provide information – thank you for your support.
Last Friday was a great night at Central Market. A little surprising with Western Days happening across the street but had quite a night talking with people.
On Saturday we set up a booth at the Backpack Blessing with Griffith First United Methodist Church. Pleasure meeting people and again explaining what we do.
Cool thing about tabling events is listening, not only to the stories, but how I can make the display better. Thank you!
We have a new banner that lists our logo and who we are. Donations from folks is what allows us to do this. There are always some administrative costs involved with an endeavor, last year we donated over $4,000 to American Foundation Suicide Prevention (AFSP) through the NWI Out of the Darkness walk. Costs were around $300 and most of that was for Fright Noise. We give away a large amount of wristbands, buttons, stickers, etc….at our events. Always looking to partner with a local vendor to help us out with “swag” but we have to be cost-conscious.
A quick mention of the banner – this photo was from Rockopelli Festival – August 12 in Crown Point. Typical display set up for us. The new banner uses a photo I took of Dwight at North Coast Music Festival in 2019 (ironically the last time I saw him face to face). A photo that I have to leave uncredited from a performance he did at Concord Music Hall. The new logo that preserves his original sound bars. The “official” logos, in the interest of transparency, are not organizations that have supported or endorsed us. They are organizations and groups we have supported through donations. Groups I truly believe are beneficial in bringing mental health and suicide prevention forward. In our resources section, you can find more information.
Recent Events
Sunday, August 13, 2023 we were asked to table in support of the Hometown Heroes ride for first responders and veterans in Crown Point. We were honored to work with the folks at 1441 Foundation and others, made many contacts and had some terrific conversations.
Saturday, August 12, 2023, we tabled at the Rockopelli Music Festival in Crown Point. Rockopelli is a non-profit organization that supports other like groups. They provide scholarships for young people through their Pelli-play initiative.
Fridays are Central Market in Griffith. We are part of Griffith and keep our interests local to our community.
Our events page list where we will be tabling in the future – check it out!
Thank you to all of those who have shown support for this journey. Dwight may no longer be with us but his story can be told. Your story is not finished, tell it.