On May 11, the annual St. Jude Concert for Hope was hosted by Paul and Meg from The Kat, 96.9 at Coyote Joe’s. Last year I was unable to attend when Rodney Atkins was performing, which just killed me, but I did see him later that year at the Speed Street Festival in uptown Charlotte during the Coca Cola 600 event.  This year, the list of entertainers giving their time for the event was fabulous – Little Big Town, Jerrod Niemann, Chris Young and Lee Brice made for an outstanding show!  There was no way I was missing it again!

There was a silent auction as well as a live auction, where a guitar autographed by the artist performing that night sold for $2000. Then after a marriage proposal on stage (she said yes!) the show began!

Lee Brice, being a relatively local boy growing up in Sumter, SC, emceed the show with all 4 artists on stage together performing their hits and raising money for St. Jude’s. They were not beyond encouraging each other for donations – Jerrod Niemann offered hugs from Chris Young for donations – to which Chris promptly obliged when the donations began to come in!

St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, which was opened in 1962 and founded by the late entertainer, Danny Thomas, received 100% of the ticket sales and auction money. Danny Thomas named the hospital for Saint Jude Thaddeus, the Catholic patron saint of hospitals.

St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families do not have to pay for treatment that is not covered by insurance. No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay. Its mission is to find cures for children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases through research and treatment.

St. Jude has touched the lives of many children in the Carolinas.  Two young ladies from the Charlotte region, who had been former patients at St. Jude’s, were in attendance at the concert.  You do not have to look far for others who have benefited from St. Jude’s.  Tom Cowden, son of the Assistant Principal Nelson Cowden at West Rowan High School in Mount Ulla, North Carolina, received six weeks of radiation to his brain and spinal cord, along with intensive chemotherapy at St. Jude’s after Francis Shepherd, a teacher at West, urged the family to contact St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital due to the seriousness of his cancer located deep in his brain. The family flew to Memphis and met the staff there, then decided that Tom would be treated at St. Jude’s.

St. Jude’s is a resource available to all children regardless of where they live or the family’s ability to pay for care.  Fundraisers, such as St. Jude’s Concert of Hope, enable the organization to continue to treat kids in the Carolinas and around the world.

By DJ Stephan