Wish You Were Here. Photo Credit: John W. Ward
When the Pink Floyd tribute band, Wish You Were Here: The Sight & Sound of Pink Floyd, takes the stage at Akron Civic Theatre on June 21, a great show will be promised. But everyone involved sees the evening as a time to celebrate and push for a fundraising milestone.
This is the ninth benefit concert the Cleveland-based band will have performed for Akron Children’s Haslinger Family Pediatric Palliative Care Center at the Civic since 2013. It’s the longest-running Pink Floyd tribute band and viewed by many to be the best in the country.
According to Dave Lasco, event coordinator, they are hoping this concert helps put them over the $250,000 mark of giving to the center’s River of Life Fund. This fund provides direct financial aid to Haslinger Center patient families for nonmedical needs.
According to Denise Zehner, bereavement coordinator for the center, the greatest needs requested by patient families are for help with funeral expenses, rent or mortgage assistance and utilities. Occasionally, a unique purchase is necessary such as when bad storms recently came through Cleveland and shut down electricity for days. The funds helped a family purchase a generator to keep medical equipment operating for a child dependent upon it.
Wish You Were Here. Photo Credit: John W. Ward
Lasco, brother-in-law to Dr. Sarah Friebert, the Haslinger Center’s founder and long-time medical director, got involved in fundraising when the center was celebrating its 10th anniversary.
That benefit featured various bands, karaoke-type entertainment and a “pass the hat” approach to the fundraising. Lasco knew it was not sustainable.
“I knew we needed to find one band. I knew the guys with Wish You Were Here, so I approached them. At the time, there were only two bands that could fill the Civic Theatre: Wish You Were Here and The Michael Stanley Band. It so happens that I knew Eric “Eroc” Sosinski, and he was in both bands.”
Wish You Were Here. Photo Credit: John W. Ward
Concert promoters hope to fill the Akron Civic Theatre June 21 and surpass the $250,000 fundraising milestone the band raised for Akron Children’s pediatric palliative care patients since 2013. Sosinski, the vocalist/bassist, founded the band in 1987 with guitarist/vocalist Jim Tigue when it was then known as the Harvest Pink Floyd Revue.
Lasco says the success of Wish You Were Here stems from the band’s attention to detail in all things Floyd. The note-for-note sound. The stage effects (lasers, large inflatables, vintage circle screen videos, wall bricks). The entire experience.
“This year, they’re performing the “Wish You Were Here” album in its entirety, plus additional Pink Floyd classics,” said Lasco.
While celebrating the work of providers and the lives being touched daily in the pediatric palliative care center, the band has some celebrating of its own to do this year.
Wish You Were Here is returning to the Civic on what it calls its 50/30 Tour. It’s the 50th anniversary of its namesake 1975 Pink Floyd album, as well as the tribute act’s own 30th anniversary of committing fully to the sights and sounds of Pink Floyd.
Wish You Were Here. Photo Credit: John W. Ward
Don’t wish you were here … be here!
The show, which begins at 8 p.m., is sponsored in conjunction with the Akron Civic Theatre and WONE FM 97.5 FM. Tickets can be purchased here. Here’s a link if you wish to donate directly to the fund: www.classy.org/give/659798/#!/donation/checkout
Wish You Were Here: Photo Credit: John W. Ward
