Charitable Stones

“I was blessed to meet Mick Jagger’s assistant through one of our Photocharity board members.” Jeffrey Sitcov calls the Reader to talk about his latest good fortune: a pair of electric guitars, each one autographed by all four members of the Rolling Stones. “The assistant was impressed with what we are doing.”

For more than a decade, Sitcov, 57, of Cardiff, has been a fundraiser and advocate for homeless youth. Through his nonprofit company, Photocharity, Sitcov has funneled donations into the San Diego Youth and Community Services Storefront Shelter in Hillcrest.

“The Stones responded with not one but two guitars,” he says. “These are their guitars. They bought them for us. They didn’t play them, but I have a photo of Keith and Ronnie practicing with one of the guitars in front of them, plus a letter of authenticity.” The asking price? $36,000 minimum, he says, for each. “That will be enough money to help 750 kids with dinners, clothes, supplies, and so on.”

Sitcov says he has raised over one million dollars over the past 12 years via Photocharity, and much of it through the sale of pop-star memorabilia autographed by artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Jewel, and Ziggy Marley.

For years, Sitcov was a fixture at Humphreys, the Belly Up, and Anthology, where he championed the Photocharity mission to save homeless teens and passed a hat among concertgoers.

Along with working capital, Sitcov also brought arts and music to the teen Shelter. “Music and arts are the two most successful programs we’ve started at the Storefront.”

Sitcov quotes a Newsweek story from a couple of years ago: “San Diego is number three in the U.S. for homeless kids,” after New York and Los Angeles, he says. “We have our House of Hope program and our Taking Music and Arts to the Street,” which won an award for the Best Youth Program in Ocean Beach for 2013. “That’s what the Stones guitars are going to fund.”

For bidding info, visit photocharity.org.