Montreal's Simple Plan donates $250K to underprivileged youth

Members of Montreal-based band Simple Plan were in town Friday — not to perform, but to donate $250,000 to organizations helping underprivileged youth.

The pop-punk band is known for angsty hits like “I’m Just a Kid” and “When I’m Gone” and have sold millions of records worldwide. But while performing is the members’ passion, they’re even more proud of the work they do off-stage.

“We have a great job, it's amazing, but these people are every single day trying to help people that need it,” said drummer Chuck Comeau.

“The fact that we can use our music and our band and our shows to help support that is so rewarding.”

For two decades, the Simple Plan Foundation has been an integral part of the band’s mission. It gives funds to help younger generations and highlights the importance of mental health. It also facilitates access to music and arts therapy programs.

Friday’s $250,000 donation will go to 28 Canadian non-profit organizations.

“We have Nova Music, a brand new organization that started about a year ago, and they go into schools and they provide instruments. They try to get young people to join like an orchestra,” said Comeau.

“There's Garage à Musique here in Montreal that goes into like underprivileged neighbourhoods and provides them with access to music, which is a wonderful. There's Sainte-Justine that uses music [for] musical therapy programs for people that are sick.”

Since 2005, the foundation has donated close to $3 million, but this latest donation is the first the band has made since the pandemic. Lead guitarist Jeff Stinco said it feels good to be giving back again.

“The big part of raising funds for the Simple Plan Foundation is through the ticket sales of our headlining shows. So it was quite difficult to keep going,” he said.

The band said it has received thousands of messages calling their life's work a lifeline, and that is what keeps them going.