Loren Mach is a 34 year-old musician who is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail to support the people whose music has meant so much to him over the last 3 years. Three non-profit organizations who help the people of Zimbabwe will be the recipients of the money (currently over $18,000. See www.zimwalk.org.) he has raised from pledges and concerts as he hikes from the Mexican border to Canada. Loren has been passionately involved in music most of his life, earning Percussion Performance Degrees from the Oberlin and Cincinnati Conservatories of Music. But after a season as acting principal percussionist with the New Mexico symphony in Albuquerque he walked away, turning his back on music for over 5 years.

It is his recent involvement in the Shona (Zimbabwean) music community that has once again opened his heart to being a musician. “My Shona friends, and teachers like Cosmas Magaya (see www.kutsinhira.org), have shown me so much about music and life. Now its time for me to give something back. I want to celebrate the musical and cultural influences that Zimbabweans have shared with people in the U.S. and demonstrate the reciprocal possibilities for us to help people in Africa.”

Loren, who lives and plays music with groups in Boulder Colorado, has been hiking the trail since April 27, 2004. He will be in Corvallis, joining local marimba groups here for a fundraiser on August 28, 2004 at the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 4515 SW West Hills Road. This event is hosted by Ancient Ways, one of the non-profits his hike will support. Ancient Ways is based here in the Mid-Valley (see www.ancient-ways.org) and will receive all proceeds from this particular concert for their project in Mhondoro, Zimbabwe, Nhimbe for Progress.

Ancient Ways, founded in 1993, is a 501( c)3 organization that is dedicated to preserving and learning from traditional ways of indigenous peoples. Nhimbe for Progress is their community development project in Zimbabwe which was started in 1999. It has as its mission to promote recognition of our spiritual and human relatedness to rural Zimbabwean people by providing appropriate assistance where the need exists, in an ecologically sound, self-sustaining, and culturally respectful way, and by creating opportunity for cultural exchange, which encourages unity and cooperative empowerment. Nhimbe is an old-fashioned Shona word referring to a community working together to help each other in daily life, for example, during harvest time.

Currently, Nhimbe for Progress helps seven villages in Zimbabwe with school tuition for over 200 children, sponsoring pre-school, building huts and fuel-efficient wood stoves, and the founding of a Community Center with medical supplies, edible landscaping and a library. The preschool receives most of its financial support from the Sundborn Children’s House, a Montessori preschool located in Albany. All donations to Ancient Ways are tax deductible; they are interested in how you would like to see the money from this concert used. For more information about this event, Nhimbe for Progress or Ancient Ways, contact Jaiaen Beck at 541-258-8710 or zimbabwe@ancient-ways.org.

Loren will be joining the Ancient Ways Community Marimba Ensemble, which will open for the local favorites The Maharimbas at this fundraising concert. The Maharimbas, of Corvallis, play African and Caribbean traditional music, plus originals and arrangements of contemporary music, on marimbas and percussion. The public is invited to come and “Dance On for Africa!” from 7 to 10:30. Suggested donation $5 to $20. $5.00 tickets are for sale at the Grass Roots Bookstore. Pizza, snacks and cold drinks will be available at the concert.