Proceeds
for these events will benefit the Tom Sustic Fund.
Upcoming
Events for Tom:
Proceeds support families with
children with cancer. For
info: mrksustc@together.net New website: www.eventsfortom.org
10/27/08:
The Northumberland Ranters at
the Unitarian Church in Montpelier (co-presented with Summit School)
11/2/08: Young
Tradition Showcase with Kate Frattelone and Hannah Crary at the Deborah
Lawson Memorial Library in Jericho (co-presented with the Deborah
Lawson Memorial Libary)
11/9/08: Tony
DeMarco with Jerry Holland and other guests at FlynnSpace in
Burlington (co-presented with Tony DeMarco)
11/14/08: 'Longing
for Eliza' with with John Gorka, Eliza Gilkyson and Cliff Eberhardt at
the Chandler Music Hall in Randolph (co-presented with the Chandler
Music Hall)
*proceeds support
families with children with cancer
With support from
Summit School, Chandler Center for the Arts, Fiddleheads, Young
Tradition, the Vermont Family Network, the Champlain Valley Folk
Festival, Vermont Violins/Burlington Violin Shop, the Flynn Center for
the Performing Arts, Messenger Print and Design, Smithsonian Folkways
and you!
The concert is the 109th Events for Tom presentation. Proceeds from the
concert benefit the Tom Sustic Fund, which supports families with
children with cancer.
Additional contributions to the fund can be sent
to: Tom Sustic Fund, PO Box 163, Fairfax, VT 05454. For information
about the Events for Tom Series or the Tom Sustic Fund, contact Mark
Sustic at 802-849-6968 or mrksustc@together.net.
Context for Events to
Support
the Tom Sustic Fund
and designate the "Tom Sustic Fund"
Several musicians have offered to do a
performance
as part of a series of concerts in Burlington, designed both to
strengthen
and sustain a fund established in Tom Sustic’s memory (he died on July
4th, 2001 after a 2-year battle with leukemia) to support families with
children with cancer, and to ensure a series of high quality concerts
featuring
the best performers we can come up with. The events are used to
raise
awareness about children with leukemia and their families. All profits
go into the Tom Sustic Fund. Doing these types of events coincide
with a connection Thomas and his mom and dad had for many years with a
wide variety of performers, many of whom are featured at these the
events.
The events help create an environment that was familiar to Tom, and
gathers
a group of people who knew him in these settings.
There remains about $40,000 in a
fund that was established to support a
bone marrow transplant for Tom, mostly
generate through a series
of
benefit
events in 1999 and 2000 involving people like La Bottine Souriante,
Beau
Soleil, Mick Moloney with Jimmy Keane and Robbie O’Connell, the
Savoy-Doucet
Cajun Band, Jesse Winchester, Greg Brown, John Roberts and Tony
Barrand,
Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus, Lui Collins, etc. Unfortunately, after
several bone marrow drives and continuous monitoring and searching
through
several million samples on the available registries in North America
and
Europe, an ideal donor was never located. Our intent is to
sustain
the fund at its present level as a base amount, and to add to it
incrementally
with events like this concert series, growing the fund as an endowment
so that it will be self-sustaining and continually generating revenue
that
would be used to support other families with terminally ill children,
particularly
those in need of transplantation.
Why We Do The Series
Just a reminder that the
events in this series happen for a couple of important reasons…..
1. We want the opportunity to see,
hear and enjoy music associated with some our favorite musician
friends, and …..
2. And we want to raise money to
support families with children with cancer….. There is more
information about this effort and the Tom Sustic Fund in Parent to
Parent's newsletter
article.
Proceeds from the concerts goes to
the fund and supports children and families who need comfort and hope
as they struggle with similar circumstances as our family did. We
would not be doing this if it weren't for the ability to help families
who are dealing with things no one deserves to have to deal with.
It is for this aspect your contributions to these events that we
are most thankful.
Tom wrote in one of the journals
he kept that we should ‘remember
to try to be happy….., to try and look on the plus side of things, try
to live your life full of fun, because every moment of it counts’….. and we hope that everyone who
attends the events have plenty of fun!
The Fund has been used to
directly support the needs of families with children being
hospitalized for cancer treatments. The situations which these
funds have been put to use include…..
o income support for a parent who
left their job to care for their child at home
o expenses for 2 families related
to celebrating the holiday season
o airline tickets for 2 families
to accompany their children traveling to treatment in another state
o general support for 3 families
with children receiving bone marrow transplants outside Vermont
o general support for a family
caring for their child during long-term hospitalization
o support for a family to purchase
computer equipment
o car repair for a family who
transports their child to Burlington for treatments
o general living expenses for a
family following a successful transplant for their child
o car repairs for a family that allowed them
to get their son to and from treatments in Burlington
o travels costs that allowed families to
accompany their children for treatments and/or transplants in New York
City, Boston, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and North Carolina
o living and travel expenses when a parent
had to quit working to care for their child
o payment of taxes so a family’s home would
not be put up for tax auction
o general household expenses while a child
was being hospitalized in Burlington
o costs associated with end-of-life care at
the Vermont Respite House and in private homes
o costs of renewing a driver’s license so a
parent could drive their child to and from treatments in Burlington
o hospital bills not covered by insurance
The thread that holds this series
together, whether its traditional fiddling from Scotland and Ireland,
or singing from the coast of Maine, the Baltic Sea or the outer
Herbrides….. is that life that is rooted in a place to call home, where
who we are and what we do matters to some people who know us, care
about us, love us for who we are and what we do….. It is out hope
that each concert is another link in the chain…..
For more information about this effort, contact Mark Sustic at mrksustc@together.net.
LOOKING BACK
A
lot of performers have appeared as part of the series..... Taylor
Armerding, the Battlefield Band, Randal Bays, Joey Beaton, Sarah Blair,
Gordon Bok, Michel Bordeleau, Greg Brown, Matt Buckley, Martin Carthy,
Liz Carroll & John Doyle, Patti Casey, Cristi Catt, Brian Conway,
Megan and Will Danforth, Tony
Demarco, Patrick Desauney, Jim Disabito, Felix Dolan, Ruthie Dornfield,
James Falzone, Michel Faubert, Deb Flanders, Julee Glaub, Gypsy Reel,
Jerry Holland, Andy Irvine, Coco Kallis, Norman Kennedy, Claudine
Langille, Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer, Trisha MacCormack, Dougie
MacLean, Buddy
MacMaster, Taki Masuko, Doug MacPhee, the Mammals, Mango Jam, Tommy
Makem, Andre
Marchand, Colin McCaffrey, Jeremiah McLane, Tony McManus, Jean-Claude
Mirandette, Normand Miron, Bruce Molsky, Mozaik, Keith Murphy, Camille
and Graham Parker, Nicola Parov, Tommy Peoples, Laura Risk, Anthony
Santoro, Daithi Sroule, Steampacket, David Surette, Karen Sutherland,
Pete Sutherland, Brenda Taaffe, Beth Telford, Village Harmony, Brian
Wicklund, Yankee Chank, Rens van der Zalm and Dave Zollo.
Amazing!
Listing of the events that were presented in
2004/2005 as part of the series…..
1. 10/18/04 Boys Choir of Kenya
2. 10/30/04 Mick Moloney, Robbie O’Connell
and Dana Lyn
3. 11/18/04 Greg Brown
4. 12/17/04 Nowell Sing We Clear
5. 1/7/05 Pete Sutherland and Friends
6. 2/13/05 Kevin Burke and Jerry Holland
7. 3/13/05 Tommy Makem
8. 4/17/05 Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham
9. 5/7/05 Buffy Sainte-Marie
10. 5/20/05 Farewell Reunion (proceeds to
scholarship fund)
11. 8/13/05 the Young Tradition...
PUBLICITY
If you could put up posters upcoming events, geting them up in places
where people might be interested in this type of event, that would be a
BIG help! Even a single poster in the right spot can make a
huge difference……. Your refrigerator counts if people will see it
there! If you're not already on the list, and have the capacity
to receive an electronic version (as an attachment) of posters, we'd
love to add you to that list. Just send a message and we can add
you to the list. That's the easiest for us. Even if you
have a single place to put a poster, it can be a big help. If you
don't have capacity to receive attachments, we can send you hard
copies..... just send a message with your mailing address and the
number of posters you'd be willing to distribute.
Calendar of Events
We put a calendar together, initially because we are placing a high
premium on doing our best to not conflict with other events and
presenters in the region. It turned out that the best way to get
the information in one place was to make it available to
everyone. It gets sent about once to everyone on our e-mail list
(about 800 people), and is now included in the Burlington Free Press
every Wednesday.
We encourage you to send information about any events you think should
be included, as far in advance as you can (even if you've got something
scheduled a year or more in advance). The calendar will only be
as good as the information that gets sent to us. We especially
need your help when plans change, performers cancel, locations change,
etc.
The geographic scope of the calendar includes Burlington and events
generally within a 90-minute drive of Burlington, including Barre,
Johnson, Middlebury, Montpelier, Montreal, Randolph, Rutland , St.
Albans, St. Johnsbury, Vergennes, Waitsfield, the New York side of Lake
Champlain, and places in between. Events include concerts,
dances, festivals, workshops, and related events (fundraisers, fairs,
sales, lectures, etc.).
Please help by making sure that your submissions are folk, traditional,
roots music or dance-related (within a fairly liberal boundary), and
are open to the general public.
You can send your information to mrksustc@together.net.
*Are you interested in
Joining the Bone Marrow Registry?
National
Marrow Donor Program