Al Andrews is the founder and director of Porter’s Call, a nonprofit based in Franklin, Tenn., which provides counseling and support for recording artists and their families. Andrews recently published a children’s book titled The Boy, The Kite, and The Wind.  One-hundred percent of the book’s net profits will go toward a mix of national charitable organizations that primarily come to the aid of children.

Halogen caught up with Andrews about the inspiration for his book and how he used it to give money away.

What inspired you to write the children’s book The Boy, The Kite, and The Wind?

When I was writing a poem about six years ago, I was walking through a park in downtown Franklin, and there was a kite hanging in the tree. And I have two boys, and they were, gosh, older when I wrote it, probably getting ready to go to high school. But I just remembered all the times that I’d been in that park with my boys, and our kites ended up there [laughs]. My kites have just always been in trees or crashed on the ground, and for some reason that day, I just got thoughtful and started thinking, “Why in the world do we keep buying kids kites when most kite expeditions end poorly?” And so I went back to my house and wrote a poem to answer that question and put it in a little file, and it just sat there for a few years.

And then about three years ago in response to a good friend’s question, who asked me, “What do you dream?” When he asked me that, I was really stumped by the question, because I thought, “You know I’m living the dream. I’m getting to do everything I wanted to do and everything I love.” But he kept pushing me, and this is a particularly generous man, and finally I went, “You know, I know what I dream. I dream of being a philanthropist. I would just love to be a philanthropist.” And he’s a really good friend who said, “Well that’s a wonderful dream, but problem is, philanthropists have money [laughs].” So I basically said, “Well, yeah, but I still wanna be one,” so, long story very short, I decided that the only way I could figure to make money, and I have a full-time job, would maybe be to write a children’s book. And I pulled out my old poem, dusted it off, and started making it into a children’s picture book, only without the pictures at that point. And then I read in Newsweek magazine where Eric Carle who wrote this children’s book called The Very Hungry Caterpillar. He wrote that and a few others, and he sold 29 million copies. So I think that means one in every 10 people in the United States have one of his books. That’s nuts [laughs]. And they sold for about $15 each, so well that’s philanthropy money; maybe this can happen. So that’s really why I wrote the book, to find a way to make money to give away.

“You know, I know what I dream. I dream of being a philanthropist.”

So did you have any difficulty getting it published?

Well, I decided to publish it myself. And so I had three friends come to me when they heard about this and invested $10,000, pretty overwhelming. And with that, I found an illustrator through a catalogue of children’s book illustrators.  A dear friend here in town who founded and runs a children’s publishing house here called Dalmatian Press in Franklin; they were very gracious to guide me through the process; they gave me tips on printers and other things, and so I found a printing operation that printed the book for me and printed my first 5,000 books and started a website, a few websites. One’s called ImprobablePhilanthropy.com, and it’s kind of, “Oh, why should Bill Gates have all the fun?” [laughs]. And the other is TheBoytheKiteandtheWind.com. And they link to each other. And so basically it’s been a self-publishing venture, because I figure you can make more money if you can publish it yourself, which may or may not be true. But since September we’ve sold 1,500 books. And the illustrator I found decided that for the next book he was asked to illustrate, he wanted to give the money away.  When I went to write him his check for his fee of $10,000, he told me to write it to Compassion International, which is a nonprofit that helps kids and poor children get an education and food and training. He gave away his fee. We weren’t even able to give away money, and we really haven’t made all that much yet. But the book has gotten some great reviews and is starting to pick up. We’ll see where it goes.

I understand that all the net profits from your book are going toward a mix of national charitable organizations.

Yeah, a lot of my friends are working for nonprofits, and so I’ve kind of started there. So there’s a nonprofit here in Nashville called Blood: Water Mission. It was started by the singing group Jars of Clay. And they deal with water and AIDS issues, and they’ve dug a thousand wells in Africa. And they’re also working on AIDS prevention and care. So there’s one of ‘em. There’s a nonprofit here in town called Thistle Farms and Magdalene, and they’re an organization that helps women get off the streets from drugs and prostitution. Compassion International is another, and World Vision.  So all of these different organizations I’ve just gone to, and I’ve said, “OK, I don’t have a lot of money yet, but I want to make a lot of money, and if I do, can you think of some projects that we can support?” So they’re all kind of working on finding projects that when and if this book starts selling, we can support. We’re giving away 100 percent of the net profits.

Do some of these organizations assist children?

Most of these impact children. For instance, again these people don’t know it yet; the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation in California. A good friend of mine is on the board, and she’s told me about them. So they’re one, but they don’t know it yet [laughs]. And then, the American Red Cross, which has done some excellent work with kids. And there’s another one called Show Hope, and they work with orphans; they’re big on adoption. And they come, like if you want to adopt a kid, and it cost $20,000 to $30,000 to adopt, they’ll scholarship you, and they have also built a hospital in China.

Could you tell me a little bit about Porter’s Call and how it got started?

Yeah, well Porter’s Call is a service of counseling and support for recording artists and their families, and it’s also a nonprofit. And I am available for artists and their families just to kind of walk alongside them through this crazy life that they live, you know the touring. I think an artist’s life is really impactful to families. It’s difficult. And so it’s a safe place for artists to come away from the public and away from, you know, anybody that would abuse the privilege and just to get help. And it started when I was in private counseling practice, and a lot of artists ended up coming my way. So I was in the private counseling practice and saw a lot of artists, but artists couldn’t come regularly, and many artists couldn’t afford me at the time. And I started wondering if there was another way to help them and to create something that would fit their needs and their schedules. And I went to a record company, Sparrow, EMI Christian and started talking to them about it and asked if they would be interested in helping to get it going, and they actually made the initial investment. Now I raised my support throughout this whole thing from folks who benefit from helping artists, so that would be record companies, producers, management and some of the artists themselves support it, and the service itself is free, and it’s to any full-time recording artist.

So it’s kind of a haven away from all the craziness.

Yeah, it is, and it’s a private place that’s safe. We have a little place in downtown Franklin, and it’s available to artists from any genre.

- Kenneth Davis

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