Benefit concert raises over $110,000 for Connellsville flood victims
Thalia Juarez | Herald-Standard
Connellsville native Scott Blasey of The Clarks performed at the Connellsville Area Flood Relief Benefit Concert held at Aaron’s Building in Connellsville Friday night. The sold-out event raised more than $110,000 from ticket sales, donations and auctions.
Connellsville native Scott Blasey of The Clarks performed at the Connellsville Area Flood Relief Benefit Concert held at Aaron's Building in Connellsville Friday night. The sold out event raised over $110,000 from ticket sales, donations, and auctions.
Fayette County Commissioner Dave Lohr among others attended the Connellsville Area Flood Relief Benefit Concert held at Aaron's Building in Connellsville Friday night. The sold out event raised over $110,000 from ticket sales, donations, and auctions.
Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln thanks everyone for their efforts and coming together as a community to help eachother at the Connellsville Area Flood Relief Benefit Concert held at Aaron's Building in Connellsville Friday night. The sold out event raised over $110,000 from ticket sales, donations, and auctions.
Guitarist Dave Gasbarro performed at the Connellsville Area Flood Relief Benefit Concert held at Aaron's Building in Connellsville Friday night. The sold out event raised over $110,000 from ticket sales, donations, and auctions.
Tuffy Shallenberger,?President at Shallenberger Construction, Inc. announces a $5,000 anonymous donation was made during the Connellsville Area Flood Relief Benefit Concert held at Aaron's Building in Connellsville Friday night. The sold out event raised over $110,000 from ticket sales, donations, and auctions.
Local businessman Terry “Tuffy” Shallenberger and singer Scott Blasey joined together to raise more than $110,000 to help victims of the recent flooding in Connellsville.
A benefit concert held at the Aaron’s Building in Connellsville Friday night, and featuring headliner and Connellsville native Blasey, helped bring in the funds through ticket sales, corporate sponsors and a Chinese auction.
Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln said it was just two or three days after the devastation from the floods that Shallenberger and Blasey teamed up to work out a plan to raise money for the victims.
“We put our heads together and said let’s do this,” Shallenberger said. “We just wanted to give back to our community and help the people in need.”
Blasey, who performs all over the country, said his schedule was pretty full heading into the fall, but had one or two days available for a Friday or Saturday event.
“With these kind of things, you want to strike while the iron is hot,” he said. “Tuffy (Shallenberger) had the building available, and he did the legwork to put the event together.”
Shallenberger said with Blasey’s advertising and a few Facebook posts, the 250 tickets available for the concert were sold out within six hours.
“We could’ve sold another 500 tickets,” Blasey said. “The response was phenomenal.”
Lincoln said the support from these two men has just been overwhelming.
The morning after the flood, Blasey and his family traveled from their Washington County home to Connellsville, bringing supplies and helping.
“He’s just never forgotten where he’s from,” Lincoln added. “We’re so fortunate to have him here.”
“I told my kids, consider yourself lucky,” Blasey said.
Shallenberger also showed up early the morning after the flooding and simply asked Lincoln what was needed.
“Two hours later, there was a whole fleet of Shallenberger trucks and employees who worked 12 to 15 hours a day,” Lincoln said. “Without Tuffy’s (Shallenberger) support, we would have never accomplished what we have so far.”
With his help, 84 Lumber agreed to donate $50,000 worth of building supplies and Nemacolin Woodlands sent in over 150 boxed lunches.
And from there, dozens of local companies gave of their time and money, including Dave Bruner Insurance Agency who set up a pledge and matching funds situation that raised over $120,000 for those in need because of the flood.
“It blows my mind the amount of businesses and individuals who have continued to give to this cause,” Lincoln said. “We are so blessed to have all of this support.”
Fayette County commissioner David Lohr has lived in the area his whole life and said he cannot ever remember a disaster as destructive as the recent flooding.
“I’ve never seen a community pull together like this ever,” he said, adding that with this being the first disaster response necessary, it really couldn’t have gone any better.
“Recently, the local PEMA (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency) representative who handles disaster response all over the state, said he had never seen any place in the state that had responded the way the people responded here.”
Denise Friel, owner of Atkins Music in Connellsville, donated a guitar to the event auction, which Scott Blasey signed, that raised $1,500.
“I’m so proud of our town,” she said. “It’s just been a wonderful, wonderful involvement of all age groups pulling together. We’re fortunate to have this kind of community.
“I don’t think people were aware of the inner strength of this community,” she added. “We’re still a long way off, but this is a good start. We just have to keep it going.”
Lincoln said a committee was formed this past week with representatives from Bullskin Township, Connellsville Township, Connellsville City, St. Vincent DePaul, the Salvation Army and Connellsville Community Ministries.
“The first meeting was to put together some bylaws, and Monday we’re going to meet and discuss the procedures on how to distribute the money,” he said. “Columbia Gas and the Catholic Charities will be replacing all of the furnaces and hot water tanks, so at least those will be taken care of.”
Lincoln added that they still need volunteers for manual labor in the Bullskin Township area and they’re almost to the point of needing labor from professional services such as electric, painting and dry wall and carpentry.
Blasey said he is amazed at what this community has been able to do so far.
“We’re not going to rebuild every house with $100,000, but it will help more than if we did nothing,” he said. “What we want really is for this money to get every family back to a normal life – kids have clothes and the families can take a hot shower.
“It might take a year, but all of the efforts now help to get them there,” Blasey said.