A quarter million bucks for neglected kids sounds pretty good. It sounds even better when the cash comes thanks to a music fundraiser headlined by the Pittsburgh-based band Rusted Root.
Writing in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, columnist Rege Behe describes the scene at the 10th annual Allegheny County Music Festival, which was founded by Justice Max Baer, who sits on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. According to Behe, the festival has “raised more than $268,000 for almost 1,400 underprivileged, neglected and abused children.”
Baer started the festival after witnessing — as a common pleas court judge — the many neglected and abused children coming through the state’s legal system. Casting around for some way to help these kids, Baer told Behe, he hit on the idea of raising funds for special items “that might seem insignificant: sports equipment, prom dresses, musical instruments.”
“Your life is very different when you’re 7 to 15,” Baer told Behe. “Maybe all you want in the world is to be a cheerleader, and you’ve practiced so hard and you’ve dreamed about it and you don’t have the $60 for the outfit. It can be consequential to a child; it can be a nightmare, devastating.”
Previous headliners for the festival include Los Lobos and Blues Traveler.
“Before we knew it, there were over 30,000 people there,” Rusted Root’s lead singer Michael Glabicki told Behe of this year’s concert, which was threatened by rain. “It was pretty intense, and it turned into Pittsburgh’s own little Woodstock. We love this gig. It’s an amazing show for us.”
Baer described how court-appointed caseworkers and foster parents keep him apprised of how much the fundraiser’s small gestures mean to children who have been neglected or forgotten.
“100 percent of the proceeds, what the public donates to us, goes to the charity,” Baer said, noting that no public funds are used to put on the concert.
Photo courtesy of Kind of Bruin, via Flickr
