Artists take stage to battle cancer

SANDPOINT — Singer/songwriter Charley Packard lost his wife, Colleen, to cancer in March.  Only a month earlier, cancer took the life of artist Karen Silva, who was married to bluesman Neighbor John Kelly.  Last October, legendary harmonica player and singer Norton Buffalo died after a battle with lung cancer and left behind his wife, Lisa, as well as a backup band of musicians who had become his musical support team.

With increasing frequency, cancer touches some lives by taking others.  On Saturday, July 3, a group of musicians who recently lost a loved one plan to push back with a Panida Theater concert to benefit four local aid organizations and the cancer patients they serve.

Knock Out Cancer will feature Norton Buffalo’s band — now known as Norton’s Knockouts — along with music from the Charley Packard Band and the Neighbor John Kelly Band.  Proceeds will go to benefit the efforts of Community Cancer Services, Angels Over Sandpoint, Celebrate Life and Bonner Community Hospice.

“When we first started talking about doing this concert, I said, ‘Count me in,’” said Packard.  “My only stipulation was that some of the funds go to hospice, because they were so helpful to my family.”

Kelly was equally enthused about donating his performance to the cause and just as interested in helping fill the coffers of four charities that step up to help when cancer strikes.

“These are all groups that do amazing things and, until they touch your life, you don’t know how important they are,” the blues musician said.  “The money from this concert is going back into the community as a way to help them.”

No strangers to doing benefit shows, both musicians now find themselves involved in a cause that has deeper meaning because of the void it has left in their own worlds.  When they take the stage at the Panida on Saturday night, they will be part of a cathartic full circle — practicing their art to raise money while taking another step along the path of grief and personal healing. 

As they do so, Packard pointed out, they will be in the company of friends.

“It’s cyclical and it’s like a family,” the songwriter said.  “We all grow together and help each other out through things like Neighbor and I are going through right now.

“As artists, we’re fortunate because we don’t have to go through it alone,” he added.  “We get to experience it all in public.”

Kelly is donating more than music at Saturday’s event — he will also donate Karen Silva’s last work of art as a raffle item to raise additional money for the four charity groups.  Silva and Kelly had collaborated for some time to create a series of what they called “blessing prints” on Japanese paper.  Each print represented a global ideal such as world peace, compassion, gratitude, love and harmony using original designs the artist created to depict those messages.

“Just a few months before she ascended, we made a great big monoprint, four feet long by three feet wide, that represents all of those words,” Kelly said.  “It was Karen’s gift back and it’s a one-of-a-kind art piece.”

With cancer as the target, concert promoter Mitchell Fullerton said it was relatively easy to come up with the appropriate list of organizations that should benefit from the July 3 concert, as well as the June 24 benefit dinner that preceded it at the Ponderay Events Center.  Although each of the four groups has been directly involved in the fight against cancer, he noted, these fundraising events mark the first time the organizations have worked collectively toward that end.

Based on his own recent experience and the knowledge of how these groups helped him out, Kelly wants to create a local assistance network — funded by the work of musicians like himself in concert with other artists — that codifies the cancer-related services available locally and makes them easy to find via the Internet.

“Through music and art, I want to build an information highway so that, whenever someone gets in trouble and they’re in the heat of battle, they can access information about all the help that is available,” he said.

“We’ve lost these people, but their energy is still here through Charley’s music and Karen’s art — and through having this community come together to help each other out,” Kelly continued.  “Working together, we’re all dropping a seed.  The information highway idea gives us a new energy that’s starting right here in Sandpoint.”

Saturday’s Knock Out Cancer benefit concert at the Panida Theater will begin at 6 p.m. and the show is scheduled to end in plenty of time for those attending to make it to Sandpoint City Beach to view the fireworks.  Tickets for the concert are $25 at the door or $20 in advance, available at Eichardt’s Pub & Grill, Laughing Dog Brewery, Pedro’s clothing boutique and online at SandpointOnline.com.

Information: (208) 290-2717