Jon Box was vice-president of label partnerships and business development at Universal Music Canada and a 24-year music industry veteran who lost his battle with mental illness in September at the age of 45.
The donated socks will be distrbuted to shelters across the country: Toronto's Convenant House, and Anduhyaun Emergency Shelter; Vancouver Rape Relief Shelter and Lookout Shelter; Calgary's The Alex; Edmonton's Boyle Street, and YESS; Halifax' Adsum for Women and Children; and Regina's SOFIA House.
“A few years ago, near the start of our time working with Jon Box and the Universal Music Canada team, we were doing a sock drive in conjunction with Hawksley Workman’s Winter Bird Tour,” Six Shooter founder and CEO Shauna de Cartier said in a statement provided to Samaritanmag. “Before we had even announced it to fans, Jon had filled his office with socks and struck a deal with a sock company to fill it again.
“He ran further with it than we ever would have expected. He did that a lot. Jon Box was a friend, a colleague and a champion of Six Shooter artists and staff, and we miss him dearly. This Christmas, we want to honour his life and celebrate his many excellent qualities as a human by doing good in his memory.”
The Jon Box Sox feature his name, and a box radiating a heart. If Six Shooter succeeds in getting rid of all the socks, that means they managed to get donations of 1200 socks.
To help spread the word, Six Shooter used its communications tools — fan newsletter, industry “top ten” list, and social media platforms — and reached out to independent record stores to participate “so that this could be a national campaign and not just Toronto,” de Cartier explains.
Those in Toronto can drop off "new warm wool" socks to Six Shooter at 51 Bulwer St., 3rd floor (at Queen and Spadina, one street north of Queen) or Soundscapes at 572 College St., and for those outside the city to any of the following retailers across the country: Calgary's Blackbyrd Myoozik at 1126 17 Ave SW; Edmonton's Blackbyrd Myoozi at 10442 82 Ave NW, Halifax' Taz Records at 1521 Grafton St; Regina's X-Ray Records at 1808 Smith St 2nd Fl.; London, Ontario's Grooves Records at 236 Dundas St.; and Vancouver's Red Cat Records at 2447 E. Hastings St.
Once the socks have been donated, email info@sixshooterrecords.com with the details (where they were donated and how many) and Six Shooter will send out the Jon Box Sox, while quantities last.
“Jon was the key reason we moved to Universal for distribution,” says de Cartier. “He was a champion of our company and our artists, and helped us in countless ways, large and small. He was a conduit for us working with Universal, and he also opened up networks of other industry people, both nationally and internationally, whether than meant introducing me to Beck’s manager — to pitch for Interstellar Rodeo — or hooking us up with a producer and studio in Muscle Shoals for The Dead South album, or any number of other connections.
“He was a booster for our company, and of me personally. He had so much passion for his work, for music, and for people. He was the largest of hearts.”
When Box died, on social media, many of the memorial posts, especially from his male friends, talked about how he was there for them when they were going through tough times. In addition to Box's lifelong passion for music and work in the industry, he was instrumental in organizing Universal's fundraising outings for members of the music industry, benefitting the Unison Benevolent Fund, set up to help those in the music industry feeling health or financial stress; and MusiCounts, the national music education arm of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (CARAS).
For a 2018 Blue Jays game excursion for charity, he emailed, "We are trying desperately to get to 700 tickets. We are currently at 666, the number of the beast! How rock n' roll is that?"
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