Charity begins at home, but continues onstage

I wrote this piece last month for a print venue, but the plans for it fell through. So I’m sharing it here with you today. But the nice thing about posting it here is that I can add the links.

Recent months have seen an enhanced awareness of charitable endeavors around the area. We always have the Thanksgiving food drives and the Salvation Army puts out their red kettles every Christmas, but what I’m referring to are the one-off events which galvanize a community – one case in point, the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition stops last fall in our local area. Thousands of local volunteers descended on both the Sussex County site and the Johnson-Goslee home in the small Wicomico County community of San Domingo to aid those chosen to benefit.

But there are always people and families in need around the area, and oftentimes it’s through no fault of their own – a house fire, crippling medical condition, or tragic auto accident place them in a perilous financial situation with little prospect for help. That’s where the community of local musicians steps up time after time, donating their efforts to the charitable cause. Need to find entertainment for a benefit? Put out the word and you’ll probably have a dozen bands beating down your door to volunteer.

I’ve attended many such events, but a recent one was put together over the space of a few weeks to benefit Ava DelRicco. The toddler was seriously injured in a December auto accident in Ocean City and has spent the time since at Johns Hopkins in a long, slow recovery process. While her prognosis is good, the family still needs financial help. Ten bands gave their time for “Bands for Baby Ava,” sharing the bill for nine hours in order to help the DelRicco family.

And it’s not always for local tragedies. After the Haitian earthquake and Japanese tsunami, benefit shows were organized and those proceeds donated to relief efforts for people who attendees will likely never meet nor receive thanks from. But they came and gave just the same.

Some of these one-off fundraisers have become annual events. After Terri Clifton’s son Chad was killed in Iraq in 2005, the next year two bands participated in a fundraiser to begin a foundation created in his memory. It was popular enough that another was scheduled for the next year in a larger venue with more bands, and the Concert for a Random Soldier has grown to become a popular Memorial Day weekend event. Similarly, after succeeding in her fight against breast cancer, Michele Hogsett began the Save the BreastFest to thank the Delaware Breast Cancer Coalition for their help in her case and to give them financial support. After a rocky start in 2009 due to a forced postponement and change of venue, the event will celebrate its fourth edition next September as a opener to Delmarva Bike Week. In both instances, several of the bands participating return to play these shows year after year.

Yet the bands aren’t the only ones who should be given kudos, as local businesses step up to the plate and donate items like the food, the venue, or even door prizes in order to draw people to the events. But most of those who attend these shows are there to see the bands, and I thought it high time to use this space to thank them for their willingness to support the community. They should be appreciated as much as the businesses that also participate in making Delmarva a better place to live.

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