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The team at Project: Heart and Soul is gearing up for August 8, when American Idol champion Taylor Hicks returns home to Birmingham, Alabama, to perform at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center on the American Idols Live! tour. The five project team members from four different states have been working around the clock to give Hicks and a charity close to his heart a day to remember.

Project: Heart and Soul was created to benefit Studio by the Tracks, located in Irondale. The small non-profit organization offers free art classes to special needs teens and adults, particularly those with autism, and emotionally conflicted children. They give them a creative outlet in a supportive and non-judgmental atmosphere.

Project manager Cathy Daniel received word via e-mail from Hicks’ management company, The Firm, a couple of weeks ago that Hicks lent his support to the project, deeming it as “great, something special and worth doing.”

“It is evident that he has been blessed with a good set of values that comes from a home where caring about others was a standard,” Daniel said. “He has an endearing quality of a strong kindness. When I got the official word, I was thrilled…absolutely thrilled.”

Time and distance has been a factor for the group, who hail from Knoxville (TN), Cincinnati (OH), Ocean Springs (MS) and Birmingham.

“We had a lot to do in a very short period, and there were only two people on the team who lived in the Birmingham/Hoover area,” Daniel said. “People had to be trusting of us and we of them when we were trying to make plans from hundreds of miles away.”

The community responded with 15 local businesses, including Bailey Brothers Music Company, Zydeco and Classic Tan & Boutique, hosting donation stations and several others hosting fundraising events. The Wal-Mart Supercenter and CajunSteamer Bar & Grill in Hoover have already held events, while the team prepares for upcoming events at Taziki’s in Mountain Brook (Aug. 3), Buffalo Wild Wings in Hoover (Aug. 5) and Crestwood Tavern (Aug. 6) and WorkPlay (Aug. 7) in Birmingham.

Hicks’ legion of fans, the Soul Patrol, also got into the mix by sending in pictures for a special DVD slideshow and donating items for a large gift basket that will be presented to Hicks when he returns home. Classic Basket of Birmingham donated their services to the project to make this one-of-a-kind gift for the singer/songwriter/musician.

Project: Heart and Soul will be accepting donations online at their official website, www.projectheartandsoul.org, through Aug. 6. So far, they have collected over $4,000 in donations and hope to have more before their presentation to Hicks and Studio by the Tracks on Aug. 8. The gift and check presentation, expected to be at Linn Park, will be held prior to the Idol concert for special VIP guests.

Having Hicks’ support of the project has helped boost donations and get more of the community involved.

“This project should be mostly about Studio by the Tracks, the place who will receive our donations, but I have found that it’s more about Taylor Hicks,” Daniel said. “Taylor is who touched our lives with his music, his story and his genuine desire to keep his integrity. It is because of Taylor that we stayed up to all hours to make this project work. We want him to be proud but humble, global but Southern.”

Daniel feels they have achieved many goals through this project, including a big donation, creating a proud moment for Hicks and getting the word out about Studio by the Tracks. But after next week’s activities, she doesn’t see Project: Heart and Soul going away anytime soon.

“I would like to keep it connected to Taylor and maybe expand our reach to include another charity in Birmingham that he supports,” she said. “I think together we can all do good. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with four wonderful women who are strong yet sensitive, intelligent yet humble, busy but available. I am proud of them, and I know we have done all this for the kids at SBTT and for an artist who has touched our lives.”

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