State Gazette Publishes Article About MCC Fundraiser – “Don’t Let Your Song Fade Away”
RACHEL TOWNSEND
Suicide awareness benefit to be held at RockHouse Live Sept. 14
On Saturday, September 14, RockHouse Live, StarrLynn Entertainment, Solemn Artist Management and the Memphis Crisis Center will be hosting an event in conjunction with “Don’t Let Your Song Fade Away”, a suicide awareness benefit held in memory of Zena Starr.
The event is has been coordinated in large part by local resident Christina Stephens, with the assistance of Paige Stephens of the Dyer County Humane Society.
“We hope this event will raise awareness toward suicide prevention,” said Paige. “The message we want to get out there is for those suffering from depression or other mental illness to reach out to somebody before making that final, irreversible decision that impacts so many.”
The event will kick off at RockHouse Live, located at 5709 Raleigh Lagrange Rd. in Memphis, with live music beginning at 1 p.m. The event will continue until 2 a.m.
Bands scheduled to perform for the event include: Affliction of the Absent, One Day West, Seeking Seven, The Red Mountain, Semantic Shift, Chris and Daphnie, Caging Elliott, A.M. Whiskey, Zach Bair Band, 5 Stories, Harsh and Atomic 75.
Additionally, the event will have an on-site mobile tattoo van.
The event is $10 per person with all proceeds to benefit the Memphis Crisis Center.
“I was at the Suicide Prevention Advisory Council retreat a few months ago when I got the call from Paige. It was kind of like synchronicity. She was putting together this amazing concert to raise awareness around suicide and wanted the event to benefit the Memphis Crisis Center. It was clear that she had been personally impacted by the loss of her friend, the performer Zena Starr,” said Mike Labonte, executive director of the Memphis Crisis Center.
“It seems like the local music scene has been hit hard by this issue. I attended John Kilzer’s memorial back in March after his death by suicide,” Labonte continued. “He was a local music icon that had also been heavily involved in the recovery movement. People need to know there is help.
“I’m so grateful that they chose to support the work of the Memphis Crisis Center! We are the local affiliate of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and have been operating crisis lines for nearly 50 years. I like to say we are a small agency with big impact.
“We are a full-service crisis-line. Along with the main hotline we also administer the Call4Kids Line, the Elder Lifeline, the HIV Care Line, and serve as a substation for the National Veterans Hotline. Everything we do is volunteer powered. We recruit and train volunteers who then answer the lines. I like to think we are changing the world one call at a time.
“We get around 20,000 crisis calls a year. About 2,000 of those deal with suicide. However, I look at all crisis calls as suicide prevention. Just by calming a difficult situation and providing help, you can keep crisis situations from becoming acute. I feel like our volunteers are saving lives every day just by providing a caring ear.
“If anyone wants to help, they can contact us at volunteers@crisis7.org or (