Things were rocking in Carthage’s TARC (the Tarble Recreation Center) Saturday night with “Persevere: a Relay for Austin.” It was a big fundraiser planned by some of Austin’s friends, including his fraternity brothers in Delta Upsilon, with a whole lot of help from longtime family friend Jennifer Ledanski. They were given the entire upper floor of the TARC (the huge room where commencement takes place) for musical entertainment, basketball and other games, pizza and other snacks, and lots of Austin’s friends walking the track . . . all to express support for Austin and to raise money for his family for the rehabilitation costs which confront them.
The musical entertainment consisted mostly of bands – and I don’t mean John Philliip Sousa – but the organizers also thought it might be fun to stir in something a bit more geriatric. . . and as Austin’s former voice teacher I was a logical choice. I gotta say that going into this I was really nervous about how my little contribution was going to fit into everything else. Would I be singing while thirty people were trying to play basketball right behind the stage? Would anybody at all be sitting there and really listening? Would there be a decent keyboard? mics? Would my singing put everyone to sleep – or worse, send them fleeing for the exits? And although I didn’t think this was likely, there was also a chance that there might not be anyone there at all and that I would be singing essentially for an empty room. (They had tried to publicize the event, but it’s always tricky to get people to turn out for a first-time event.) It was just hard to picture how it was all going to work, but my concern for Austin caused me to swallow any and all hesitation. If Austin could survive what he has survived, then I was going to show up for this event, come what may.
As it turns out, my fears were groundless and the event was a great success. (They had raised thousands of dollars already by the time I showed up at 930pm – and they were going to be continuing all night long until 700 the next morning.) It was actually quite nicely organized – but not so tightly structured that people weren’t able to have some freedom to choose their fun. It was a nice mix of people, too- friends from Austin’s church, DU brothers, friends from Carthage Choir, and plenty of students who just wanted to be a part of the event. Austin was there, too (along with this mom) and just seeing his smile made everything worth it.
It was kind of neat when 10:00 came around and it was time for me to sing. One of the DU hosts went on the mic and asked everyone in the room who wasn’t walking the track to come sit in front of the stage and listen for the next few minutes. I hated the thought of guys being pulled off of the basketball court just for little old me (it wasn’t my idea) but in fact it was nice to have a real audience in front of me, and they even looked interested in what this middle aged guy was going to do. I started out by saying that I felt a little bit like a rock star, since I was standing behind an electric keyboard with a boom mic – up on the same temporary stage where the other bands had played – and that while I couldn’t promise them any rock music – – – or anything remotely like they had been enjoying, I was going to sing a couple of songs that I hoped they would like. One was my song “Mercy and Love,” written about the 10 lepers who are healed and the one who remembers to say thank you. . . and the second was a song I wrote especially for Austin – actually a reworking of a past song, with an adjusted refrain and completely new verses. The refrain:
Be ye strong and have no fear!
Be ye strong for hope is here!
In the darkest night, our God draws near
bring life and blessing to help you persevere!
When all that you can taste is tears. . .
When all that you can feel is fear. . .
In the face of a driving rain,
when every single step brings pain,
only then can we rise again,
but only if – only if – only if – we persevere!
When all that you can see is loss. . .
bent low by a heavy cross. . .
In the face of a savage storm,
when we long to be safe and warm,
only then is our hope reborn,
but only if – only if – only if we persevere!
People really listened – and people seemed to dig my two songs. (Or don’t they say “dig” anymore?) At any rate, I think they thought my two songs were pretty groovy. (Or don’t they say “groovy” either?) And as I left the stage, it was nice to have people like Jennifer L, Jennifer Cobb, Bryan Anderson and others come up to me to warmly and sincerely thank me and compliment me. I may be a 47 year old voice teacher with a Metropolitan Opera auditions win to my credit, but I still like to know and need to know that I’ve done okay, especially when I’m a bit out of my element. I walked out of there feeling very proud to have been a tiny part of this effort – and hoping that Austin and his family gained a new portion of strength and hope from seeing such an outpouring of love and concern. Maybe we did a little something to help them persevere.
Pictured: that’s me with Austin and his mom – and the people to the left are Jennifer Ledanski and her parents.