Day: April 9, 2003

A college friend now employed by the Berklee College of Music, Adam Olenn, writes to say he is coordinating Berklee’s involvement in a charity concert, called A Night of Healing, for the victims and survivors of the Rhode Island nightclub fire that claimed the lives of 100 Great White concertgoers:

 

On February 20th a fire consumed The Station nightclub in Rhode Island at a Great White concert. There were almost 300 people in attendance, and 3 minutes after the pyrotechnics were deployed, 100 were dead and over 150 were badly burned. 

To put this in perspective, the population of Rhode Island is around 300,000. Which means that something like 1% of the population was involved in that fire.

West Warwick, RI is a working-class community in which people don’t tend to have a lot of cash lying around. This becomes a problem when they are suddenly hit with a minimum funeral cost of $5,000 or medical bills of $350,000.

Again, some perspective – the minimum cost to bury the dead from this tragedy is half a million dollars. That doesn’t begin to get into medical bills, or the costs of losing a family provider.

Under the auspices of Berklee College of Music, I have teamed up with Century Productions to produce A Night of Healing.

A Night of Healing is a benefit concert to aid the victims and survivors of The Station nightclub fire, and will be held on April 22 at the Providence Performing Arts Center from 7pm to midnight. Tickets are $35, $45, and $50, and can be purchased through the PPAC box office (401-421-2997) or through Ticketmaster. If you can possibly attend, I ask that you do so.

On Saturday April 26, A Night of Healing will be broadcast on NBC, ABC, and CBS in the Southern New England region and nationally on the Comcast Network from 7-10pm. During the broadcast, we will display an 800 number to solicit donations for The Station Fire Nightclub Fund which has been set up by the governor. If you cannot attend, please watch the telethon and call in your donation.

The performers at A Night of Healing include: Pheobe Snow, Billy Gilman, Blue Oyster Cult, Gary Angelin & the CCCM Gospel Choir, Black Hawk, Andrew Douglass of Berklee, John Anthony, Servants & Saints, Rick Derringer of Zebra, Vanilla Fudge, James Montgomery, Lennon Murphy, Chris & Meredith Thompson, Shortino from Quiet Riot, Larry Hoppen of Orleans, and Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad

If you can come to the concert, please do that. If you cannot, please tune in on Saturday evening and make a donation. If you have questions about the fund, visit http://www2.sec.state.ri.us/feb_event/. If you have questions about the event, please email me.

If you or your company can provide sponsorship to help us cover the costs of producing A Night of Healing, please contact me at your earliest convenience.

I thank you all for your time and attention, and for your generosity as we help the people of Rhode Island heal from this tragedy.

Official site here; press release (on VH1.com) here.