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Concert to raise funds for Grandview Avenue fire victims
Wednesday, March 4, 2009 2:29 PM
By ALAN FROMAN
ThisWeek Staff Writer
A benefit concert will be held March 14 to aid the businesses and employees displaced by the Jan. 17 fire on Grandview Avenue.
The fire caused $3-million damage to the Kingswood Building and displaced nearly two dozen businesses.
The concert will be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Grandview Heights High School Auditorium, 1587 W. First Ave.
"I've been wanting to do a fundraiser since the day of the fire," event organizer Chris Sharp said. Sharp is owner and director of Backbone Adventure Cycling, a national mountain bike racing team.
"It's taken a while to get a bank account set up, but we've got that taken care of now, and I'm really excited that we're going to have the concert," he said.
The lineup of performers will include Sharp's wife, singer-songwriter Lydia Brownfield, who will also create the artwork and program for the concert.
Also performing at the concert will be Grace Adelle, Rosco, Matt Monta and the Hot Coal Band and Billy Zenn and the Ringers.
The fundraiser is being supported by the Fifth by Northwest Area Commission and the Grandview/Marble Cliff Area Chamber of Commerce, Sharp said. Sponsors for the event include Brownfield's Girlmuse.com, Roll Bike Shop, Undone Lingerie and Luck Brothers Coffee House.
Tickets cost $10 and can be purchased at Luck Brothers, 1101 W. First Ave., or at the door.
"It will be a really great night of local music to benefit a really worthy cause," Sharp said.
He said he is friends with some of the people who worked in the Kingswood Building.
"I happened to be at the post office dropping something off that day, and when the smoke started coming out of the building, a friend of mine who worked at Accent on Nature coming running out," he said. "She was pretty upset, because this was her only source of income."
The money raised at the concert will be donated to more than 50 people who owned or worked at businesses displaced by the fire, Sharp said.
An account for the fundraiser has been set up at the Chase Bank branch on Fifth Avenue with the assistance of Becky Obester, an employee of JP Morgan Chase and president of the Fifth by Northwest Area Commission.
Anyone who is unable to attend the concert can stop by the bank to make a donation to the Friends of 43212 account that has been set up, Obester said.
Friends of 43212 is a new organization Obester is starting.
The group will be able to sponsor activities benefiting the Fifth by Northwest area, Obester said.
The new group will be modeled after a similar organization in the Hilltop area of Columbus, she said.
Obester said she learned about the Hilltop group's operations from its president, Gary Baker, who, like her, is a member of the Columbus Community Coalition.
The Friends of the Hilltop has planted trees around the Hilltop area, organized a number of cleanups in the neighborhood and participated in or led a number of other community projects, she said.
"That's the kind of activities I'd like to see the Friends of 43212 do," Obester said.
The organization will be better able to lead such activities than the area commission, which is not able to handle money, or the chamber, which has a business-oriented focus, she said.
Anyone interested in joining the Friends of 43212 effort should call Obester at 678-6123 or e-mail her at rebecca2305_1@hotmail.com.
afroman@thisweeknews.com