Drew Baldridge Gives Back to Charity with ‘WERD’ Initiative

Although Drew Baldridge came onto the country scene to live his dream of playing music, he also planned to use his platform for a greater purpose.

Baldridge worked for years to get his aspiration of pursing country music off the ground, and now the singer has decided it is the time to start giving back to communities near and dear to his heart just as that of his sound. Hoping to raise money by selling specific pieces of merchandise at his shows, Baldridge wants the fans to get involved with his philanthropic mission to spread some love to those who need it outside of the music world.

“So growing up, I always did a lot of missionary work, and something that I was always…it was the way I was raised. I went to church and it’s always good to give back and this last year, I was on the road so much that I didn’t have the chance to do any missionary work. I didn’t have any chance to do that. So I’ve been thinking of like, how can I still give back? How can I still have a charity of some sort that’ll allow me to be on the road and things? So I got this idea–it’s gonna be called WERD. It stands for Win Encourage Rejoice Daily and it’s WERD. And we’re gonna start selling shirts and hats and all the proceeds, 100 percent of it, goes to charity. And we’re gonna have WERD of the Month, so every month it’ll be a different charity,” Baldridge explained to Sounds Like Nashville.

Although the charity of choice will change throughout the year, Baldridge already has a couple specific foundation he keeps close to him that he hopes to fund one purchase at a time.

“Shriners Hospital is really dear to me. I went there when I was in seventh grade–I had some foot problems playing basketball and stuff and was breaking my feet a lot and they built special shoes for me to wear all through high school. I wore these special shoes to play sports in and things, so Shriners is really dear to my heart. I lost my grandma to ovarian cancer, so anything to do with that is really near to my heart, too. I think we’re gonna find a lot of awesome charities along the way that we can collaborate with and work really well with, but those are the top two that really stick out in my head that I really wanna work with,” the singer said.

Baldridge also hopes to include St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital along that list as well, noting that country music always takes care of the facility and he hopes to help out in their research endeavors to save the lives of many young children facing cancer.

WERD will kick off sometime this year while Baldridge tours across the country. Fans can stay updated on his initiative through Baldridge’s website.