The Longwood University community banded together this Tuesday, April 23 to help another community in need.
On April 1, the city of Boston and the entire United States was shaken by the death and injury caused by multiple bombs that exploded during the end of the Boston Marathon. Almost immediately, people from all over wanted to do whatever they could to help those 299 people who were injured in the explosions, as well as
honor the families of the five who lost their lives. This included Longwood students who wanted to go to whatever means possible to aid those affected by this unfortunate tragedy.
"I knew the minute it happened that I wanted to do something,” said senior Jeremy Ashby. He wanted to find a way to help get donations to help people and to support Boston. He told his friends about his idea, and Jake King and Bryan Roethel, along with Ashby, decided to coordinate a benefit concert to raise donations.
With the help of Nick Conigliaro, who designed the promotional posters, the four students were able to get the word out for the event very quickly. The concert, which was “completely done backwards,” was King’s idea. With all three of these Longwood students having ties to WMLU, they already had some performers in mind.
Within 24 hours, Ashby, the logistics manager, King, who was in charge of the talent and stage, and Roethel, the self-described “spammer and social media wizard,” had gotten the stage and lights all lined up. Ashby said Roethel was “really instrumental on getting the word out there." It was even a shock to them that they got the location they wanted after they had already announced it.
The coordinators found that if the option is there to skip the first step, it might fall into place in their favor. The self-described “trifecta” really had no idea how much work putting together this type of concert entailed. It was very important to the three coordinators
that the Longwood community come together.
The coordinators planned to raise as much money as they could for the victims of the tragedy. They knew that they wanted to have a raffle and were trying to organize a cornhole tournament, as well. The items that were raffled off were donated by different businesses throughout Farmville, including Red Front Trading Co., Pairet’s, Sunchase Cinema 8, Sheetz, Macado’s, a Mary Kay Representative and gift cards from Sweet Frog and Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar.
From the minute it was announced that WMLU was sponsoring this benefit concert, there were co-sponsors lined up. These co-sponsors included: Phi Mu Delta, Sigma Nu, Alpha Sigma Alpha, Alpha Sigma Tau, Sigma Kappa, Kappa Delta, Alpha Delta Pi, Theta Chi, Red Front Trading Co., Pairet’s, Buffalo Creek Guitar Co. and many more.
The event featured the following performers: Kyle Feathers, Jason Shaber, Justin Golden, Chip Hale and She’s a Legend.
It was announced after the concert on the Facebook event page that between donations and money from the raffles, the whole event had raised over $1,000 for One Fund Boston.
The group also sponsored a fundraiser at Moe’s that occurred during the concert. Anyone interested in making donations to help the victims in Boston can do so by visiting onefundboston. org.
*With additional reporting by Jessica Godart
Longwood students Jake King, Nick Conigliaro, Jeremy Ashby and Jared Clendenin assist in raising of money for those affected by the Boston Bombings.
