#Annedemic: The East Pointers and friends read Anne of Green Gables

A P.E.I. band living abroad is hoping to help their fellow musicians during the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain) crisis.

The East Pointers, consisting of Tim Chaisson, Jake Charron and Koady Chaisson, have brought a classic Island story to the masses via social media.

Every night until April 26, a chapter of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables is being read via the band’s Facebook livestream (Facebook.com/EastPointersMusic/), raising spirits while raising funds for artists who’ve come off the road due to the pandemic.

Already 14 chapters in, guest readers have included Emma Watkins (The Wiggles), Catherine MacLellan, Jenn Grant and Daniel Ledwell, Patrick Ledwell, Irish Mythen, Laura Cortese, Lydia Persaud, Miranda Mulholland, Colin MacDonald (The Trews), Rachel Beck and the band members themselves.

And with recent guests including Heartland’s Graham Wardle and Jonathan Torrens from Trailer Park Boys/Mr. D/Jonovision, The East Pointers community continues to grow.

They are hoping donations to the fundraiser, which are split between the readers and the Unison Benevolent Fund, might also increase.

“Like almost every other band out there, we had to stop touring with everything that’s been going on,” said the band’s banjo player Koady Chaisson in a letter to The Guardian.

“And, like everyone else, we immediately started worrying about how we were going to make ends meet.”

The band wanted to do something as a way to reach out to their friends and fans since their upcoming shows (including three months in Australia and New Zealand) have been cancelled into August.

Band member Jake Charron had gone back to the United Kingdom before the borders shut down, but the others had to stay in Australia as they weren’t feeling 100 per cent well at the time, said Chaisson.

“We went into isolation and we were looking for something to read in my wife’s books. I picked up a copy of Anne from a box, saying I should really read it, opened the book and read the title of the first chapter out loud - ‘Mrs. Rachel Lynde is Surprised’ - and it was like the whole idea just landed. We started asking a few of our friends to read and it’s gone from there.”

Chaisson read the first chapter for #Annedemic and said he was “never so nervous for a gig” in his life.

Watch Koady Chaisson read the first chapter of Anne of Green Gables:

The band’s fiddle player, Tim Chaisson, said the band was proud to be helping out.

"We are so lucky to come from a place where musicians really support each other and we wanted to make sure that if this started to work, we wouldn’t be the only ones who got something from it. We’re so grateful for people’s donations, but we also hope that people know it doesn’t have to be a large amount. If every viewer donated $5 just once, we’d have exceeded our goal already.”

Each reading is accompanied later by tongue-in-cheek show notes – corrections to the read text, clarifications of meanings of obscure words or references to books and songs, and fun facts about the reader of the chapter.

Donations currently sit at almost $6,000, are being collected online via a GoFundMe campaign (gofundme.com/f/annedemic-the-east-pointers-and-friends) from viewers tuning in nightly from New Zealand, Australia, Japan, the United States, Europe, the UK and all across Canada.

#Annedemic: The East Pointers and Friends Read Anne of Green Gables is live every night on The East Pointers Facebook page at 7 p.m. ADT until April 26.