Music Festival (9 Bands!) to raise money for Hannah Conley
Family Friendly Music!
August 17, 2013 Noon-8pm
Frank Liske Park
4001 Stough Road, Concord, NC
Bring the whole family (pets included) chairs and blankets.
Boston Butts and music for a good cause... doesn't get any better than that.
Free Admission and with $10 donation you receive a Boston Butt plate.
All donations going to help Hannah Conley!
(See Hannah's story, and why this festival was started, below)
From the Bill Cherry Music Festival facebook page
Hannah Conley
(This was written by Hannah’s Dad)
Where do I start to tell you about my girl, Hannah? We had a normal typical pregnancy with no indications that Hannah had any problems prior to birth. She began to have issues and was diagnosed at ten days old with a brain abnormality. Because of that, Hannah has Cerebral Palsy. She has muscle movement disorder, she is non-verbal (unable to talk), she cannot walk independently, and needs complete assistance with most everything. Hannah had spinal fusion surgery in February to correct an extensive curve in her spine that was completely compressing her left lung. She now has two rods and screws from the base of her neck to the base of her spine. She is still recovering, but is doing really well. The surgery was 8 hours and she spent almost three weeks in the hospital. This surgery adds more discomfort from being lifted in and out of the car. Hannah weighs 76 pounds. It is getting harder and harder for Hannah’s mother to get in and out of the car. Her mother had breast cancer two years ago and the surgeries left Mom without abdominal muscles. This makes lifting Hannah exceedingly difficult for Mom. She has to have total help with bathing, dressing, moving from one position to another, and has to have her food in a mashed consistency in order to not choke.
Hannah is 13. We live in Boiling Springs, NC. She is bright, happy, and the sweetest little girl ever! She uses a power chair for mobility. She loves school and her friends. Hannah loves her touch screen computer, and her I Pad. She loves her church and her church family. She also loves her family, especially her big brother; Austin who is 17 and attends Crest HS. Hannah has a dog, Baxter, who is her best friend. She also has a fat cat named Miss Kitty. She enjoys music, dancing, cheerleading, Special Olympics, and horses.
Thank you so much for thinking of our family. It is amazing that God used a contest and facebook to bring this all together. Words are not enough to say thank you. We are so overwhelmed and honestly are speechless!
Well my name is Mike Holbrooks and let me give you a little bit of the back story of how Facebook made this possible. It starts with Bill Cherry one of my best friends for over 30 years. About 5 years ago he was riding his motorcycle and was hit by a guy texting. The accident left him paralyzed from the chest down and with the use of only one arm. He wanted to feel independent again so he had passed his driving class but Medicaid said he had to come up $15,000 before they would build him an adaptive handicap van. I was planning to put on a music festival fund raiser for him but this past December 13th he passed away. After he passed away I told myself I was going to leave his photo as my Facebook photo till I put on this fund raiser for someone else in his honor. One morning at work Bill was on my mind. So I started calling a few different government groups that deal with handicap individuals. I wanted to see if they could put me in touch with some good people that needed some help trying to get an adaptive handicap van. I made seven phone calls that morning and they all said that I was either talking to the wrong department or person. I was fed up so I told myself that this was too hard and I had tried my best. So I went back to working. No more than 15 minutes later I get an invite from Facebook. I get so many invites to play games or other stuff I usually don’t even look at them but for some reason I pulled it up. The first thing I see is Hannah’s smiling face with a request to vote for her in a contest to try and win an adaptive handicap van. Ok remember I had just got off the phone trying to get in touch with someone I could try and help to get an adaptive van for. I knew then that Bill Cherry had that Facebook message sent to me because he knew I was about to give up. So if it had not been for Facebook and a little help from a best friend this union would have never been possible. Thanks for Your Support
