Gord Bamford is an international recording artist, Canadian country music superstar, and multi-award winning singer and songwriter. He picks guitar and pens songs with some of the best musical talent in the world. He is ever more selected to share the stage with an extraordinary list of artists including Reba McEntire, Tim McGraw, Brooks & Dunn, and the legendary George Strait. Gord Bamford is living his childhood dream.

Gord grew up on a farm near Lacombe, Alberta. A rural kid, his days were busy with school and farm chores. Gord’s family recognized the need and importance of community opportunities in the social and personal development of their children. Gord and his sisters became engaged in a variety of community organizations and activities where their experiences yielded a sense of belonging and purpose. One of the most profound for Gord was 4-H.

Like most kids, Gord could not foresee the impact that 4-H values and vision would have on his life. He was merely having fun with friends. Yet, underlying the fun, Gord was learning invaluable life lessons – responsibility and leadership, preservation of country life, and service to community. Little did he know those 4-H values would lead him down a path of remarkable success and an even deeper sense of worldly purpose.

It is no wonder that there is another dream Gord is beginning to fulfil – the dream of building communities and helping kids. Like many successful artists, Gord wants to ‘give back’. Unlike many, Gord is pursuing that dream with resolve, commitment, and true ambition. In 2008, he established the Gord Bamford Charitable Foundation. In two short years of fundraising, Gord’s team has raised nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The Foundation’s proceeds are distributed to youth serving organizations. The mission of the Gord Bamford Charitable Foundation is:

To offer under-privileged youth and single parent families in Canada an equal opportunity in life
by providing monies to support education, health care, and music.

Furthermore, it is the goal of the Foundation to improve local communities in Canada through the construction or improvement of multi-use facilities dedicated to the youth of an area.

Clearly, a partnership between Gord Bamford, the artist and philanthropist, and 4-H, the century-old, icon of rural youth organizations, is a natural fit. Bamford is set to release his 4th and newest record which is set to hit the retail markets early April 2010. In a unique collaboration, 4-H Clubs across Canada will use this new release as a cornerstone in its fundraising program. Fundraising profits from CD sales will be re-invested in local 4-H Clubs and their programs.

“I am very excited to have developed this great partnership with 4-H Canada, and have the chance to give back to an organization that had such a big impact on my youth,” says Bamford, an alumni of Alberta 4-H. “What I gained from 4-H was intangible and it only makes sense for me in my current career to want to give back."

Gord Bamford is giving back again – this time to the organization that helped his head to think, heart to be true, hands to be useful, and health to be devoted to home and community service.