But they’re still just getting started, Cummings insists. “Our goal is to be able to handle the local market and do national tours.
We’re looking at a 10,000-square-foot facility so we can get more PA. We want to get a full EV X-Line along with XLC and XLD. We’re looking at building systems that we can use do national tours and cover any venue, anywhere in the country.”
Recently, DBS has also opened satellite offices in Orlando and Washington DC, where they hope to establish facilities on par with their Miami warehouse in the future.
Yet while the focus of the business is increasingly national, its growth has enabled Cummings to focus locally, in the form of an innovative initiative aimed at helping Miami’s homeless.
It all stemmed, he explains, from talking to a homeless man he’d seen regularly in downtown Miami. “There was one guy I’d see all the time and he had one really swollen foot and one normal sized foot.”
“I asked him what happened and he said, ‘I was looking for a place to sleep, walking through a field, and I stepped on a rusty nail. My shoes were so bad it went right into my foot’.”
Seeing an opportunity to help, Cummings rooted through his home, threw some pairs of sneakers he no longer wore into the trunk of his car, and started giving them out to whomever might need them. When Tangela noticed her husband’s shoes disappearing, she was inspired by his initiative and joined in – helping to find more donors.
Very much like DBS itself, the grassroots effort grew substantially, culminating in an outdoor festival at a Miami park in 2006 – with production and staging donated by DBS – where hundreds of pairs of shoes were given out, along with items of clothing and food donated by various church groups and local businesses.
Cummings hopes to mount the shoe drive again – repeatedly, if possible, and on a larger scale. Meanwhile, the company also provides equipment and services to a variety of other charities. Like the origins of DBS itself, Cummings’ instinct to make a difference in people’s lives has much to do with his longstanding association with his church, and is firmly based in his faith.
When he first started the company, he intended to provide full event production services primarily for faith-based and contemporary Christian music events, and indeed, within months, DBS landed two major gospel concerts, Richard Smallwood and Smokey Norville, both at the 750-capacity Sunrise Musical Theater.
While that initial target demographic has widened in scope, Cummings’ faith still plays an important role in both his business and personal life. Put simply, he doesn’t preach his beliefs. He acts on them. “It’s all about character,” he states. “It may say DBS on the ticket, but it’s the same as saying Harold Cummings. If you mess up your name in the industry then you have nothing. As far as we’re concerned, every show has to be perfect.”
Based in Toronto, Kevin Young is a freelance music and tech writer, professional musician and composer.