PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) – A local educator found a way to turn his love for music into a good cause, and help fund relief for victims of the war in Ukraine.
Mark Leuchter, a professor of religion at Temple University, says when Russia invaded Ukraine, he, like a lot of people, was wondering what he could do to raise money for humanitarian aid. Fortunately, he has a skill that turned out to be well suited for fundraising.
Leuchter is a longtime musician who built up a business of building custom fuzz pedals for friends and fellow musicians about ten years ago.
“When I'm not professing stuff at Temple University, in my own other life I make fuzz pedals for guitar players. And I came up with this little delightful box right here called the Dirty Hippie.”
The Dirty Hippie is a gold box with three knobs to dial in the distortion. But unlike other fuzz pedals, the Dirty Hippie has a non-music related goal: to support people in Ukraine who are suffering because of the war.
He’s selling Dirty Hippies for $250 a piece and 100% of the profits are going to charitable causes, including Doctors Without Borders. The organization aims to use the money to help victims of the war in Ukraine.
Leuchter says the distortion pedal is modeled off a fuzz that resembles Mick Ronson’s iconic guitar sound from David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album.
“I’m doing a limited run of these,” Leuchter says, “I think I’m on number nine right now out of 10. The profits are going towards humanitarian relief for the citizens of Ukraine – I'm going to be giving the money to Doctors Without Borders, who are doing really amazing work, both for refugees who are on the other side of the border, and for people who need medical aid within the borders of the country.”
This isn’t his first fundraiser, either. He’s done them before, and though he says he’s never been able to make more than a few thousand dollars to donate, it’s all worth it because that’s more than he could give simply by himself. By using his musical skills, he’s able to give more money to charity.
Leuchter’s day job as a religion professor gives him some incredible insight on the religious and moral dimensions surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Listen to him break down how the invasion is tied to the marriage of religion and politics, and explain how Vladimir Putin has manipulated religious anxiety in the United States towards his own goals on our daily news podcast, below.