For the second straight year, the Food Depository benefited from Charter One’s summer-long Making Music Matter initiative. And, for the second straight year, I volunteered at one of the concerts at Charter One Pavilion on Northerly Island.

This year’s concert series was meant to raise awareness and funds for our Mobile Programs, of which Charter One, through a donation by the Charter One Foundation, is the Lead Corporate Supporter.

I volunteered for one of the first of the 17 concerts this summer: 311 and The Offspring. This concert also had a food drive component, where concertgoers were urged to bring canned food donations into the show and donate at the Charter One tent. The person who donated the most got a prize pack of 311-signed memorabilia.

I admit, I was a little glass-half-empty on the food donations we would get during the show because we were a little behind spreading the word. But 311 and Offspring fans proved me wrong. The winner brought in more than 120 pounds of food. In this case, I don’t mind being wrong.

The only bad thing about Making Music Matter was that I couldn’t volunteer for more of the concerts. I’m still kicking myself for not volunteering for the Stone Temple Pilots concert.

At the conclusion of the series, which ended a few weeks ago, concert goers helped raise more than $12,000, with the Zac Brown Band concert bringing in a series-record for donations raised (nearly $950).

Keep up with Making Music Matter all year on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.