Support this rock camp for Bay Area Filipinx girls and gender-expansive youth

With Sampaguita Rock Camp, you can help Bay Area Filipinx girls and gender-expansive youth make music | Photo from @sampaguitarock/Instagram

If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, you have a chance to have a hand in raising the next generation’s Tessy Alfonso.

Sampaguita Rock Camp was created in 2022 as a space where Filipinx girls and gender-expansive youth can learn, play, write, and perform music in the community. Its sophomore year kicked off on Aug. 6 but the girls still need a bit of help to make their Aug. 12 showcase at The Starry Plough in Berkeley happen.

Sampaguita Rock began when a Filipino-American mom recognized the need for a community youth music camp when her young daughter began drumming during the pandemic. Friends, family, and artists in her community came together to set up the camp. Among its co-founders are DJ Les Talusan and musician Tanya Marciana Alota.

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This year, Sampaguita Rock is holding an online fundraiser with the goal of collecting $5,000 to help cover operation costs and give financial assistance to its first to ninth grade campers. From a Funko Gold vinyl figure of H.E.R. to a beginner sarunay lesson, the auction items up for grabs are incredibly varied but the fundraiser has yet to hit the halfway mark.

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If you’re in the Bay Area this weekend, you can also attend their showcase at The Starry Plough by purchasing a ticket at $10. And who knows? Maybe the camp’s visiting artists such as Ruby Ibarra will swing by to support the girls.