Tonight we played at the House of Blues in Cleveland. For those of you who didn't know, this was a benefit show for the Rebecca Reichert Scholarship Fund. Rebecca passed away recently of cancer at the age of 24. One of her biggest wishes was to set up a scholarship for a music education major at Ball State University going into his or her senior year. Rebecca was a music teacher herself. So she wanted to help other students who wanted to go into music education. The Fund is her legacy.
Anyway, We set up this show in Cleveland since Becca was from Mentor, Ohio, which is about 20 miles from Cleveland. So many of her friends and family were able to attend.
The event turned out amazingly well. We donated all the proceeds to the Fund. Plus, we had a successful raffle including autoghraphed guitars from the All American Rejects as well as ourselves. Also, Chipotle donated one year's worth of free burritos, and Blondr travel agency donated two roundtrip plane tickets to anywhere in the Continental United States.
But the biggest surprise of the night: Johnny auctioned one of his guitars during the show. In fact, it was the guitar he was playing during Broadway. He started the bidding at $1000, and it eventually went for $10,000! And to make things even more amazing, the guy who bought it added another $5000 when he payed for the thing. So he gave a total of $15,000! Very cool.
It turned out to be an incredible night. We were amazed at the continuing generosity of our fans, who made this whole night such a success. Rebecca's family was overwhelmed. Their daughter's dream is coming to life! We are honored that we were able to play a part in this continuing legacy.
Anybody who is interested in helping out can send whatever they wish to the address that we will have posted on our website. We are very close to reaching the amount that will keep the scholarship going forever. Thanks so much to all our fans who are helping make this amazing dream a reality! Stay happy and have a great day.