Por Maria Sonnenberg
Para Al Día Today

Arturo Echarte believes in the power of music.

To help charities along the Space Coast, Arturo Echarte has founded Acoustics for a Change, which provides nonprofits with musicians who will play free of charge at their special events.

“I feel that God has blessed me and my family and I felt He would want me to do something to help out other people,” said Echarte.

“I”ve always been drawn to helping causes.”

Echarte’s ministry also serves as a network where nonprofit groups that serve youth can find musical instruments for their programs.

“People donate the instruments to us and we refurbish them and give them to organizations such as the Brevard Neighborhood Development Coalition and the Brevard Symphony Youth Orchestra,” said Echarte.

Although Echarte was always interested in music, he had to put it in the back burner while he grew his mailing services business.

“When my business started doing well and I had more free time, I took up the guitar,” he said.

The son of Cuban parents, Echarte was almost born in Cuba himself.

“My family came here in 1960 and I was born three months later,” he said.

The family originally settled in Ft. Lauderdale, but moved to Cocoa so Arturo’s civil engineer father could take advantage of the business opportunities afforded by the booming Brevard of the late 1960’s.

“My dad built a lot of the homes along Minuteman Causeway and many condos in the area,” said Echarte.

The Echartes later returned to Ft. Lauderdale, where Arturo launched his mailing services business at the ripe old age of 24.

“I was a psychology major at Florida Atlantic University, but decided to try a business like my cousin had in Puerto Rico,” said Echarte.

“My father was instrumental in helping to get my business started.”

In its infancy, the business was located in the family’s home, where Echarte would sort and label mailings before taking them to the post office. Perseverance brought large corporate clients such as American Express, and now Postal Center International has two 50,000-square-foot facilities in Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando and a staff of more than 100.

With success came spare time, and Echarte took guitar lessons from British expatriate Paul Chapman, member of local band UFO and a heavy metal guitarist.

“I translated the heavy metal into acoustic and warm Latin,” said Echarte.

Echarte spends summers in California to bask in the perfect weather and great surfing conditions. Joining him are wife Susan and daughter Madi, a junior at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy. His elder daughter, Paige, goes to college not far from the Echarte’s West Coast home.

He is working to start a “western chapter” of Acoustics for a Change in California.

When he performs for a nonprofit, he also donates sales of his four CDs to the cause.

In addition to his gigs with nonprofits, Echarte also performs at assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

“If they give me a fee, it goes to a charity,” he said.

For more information in Arturo Echarte, call the musician at 544-4949 or email him at pcisurfer@aol.com.

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