QVF Fundraiser- 3/13/15

Last night, at the Grog and Tankard in Stafford, Virginia, something really amazing came together.

Months in the making, our fundraiser came to fruition.

Christian Justus, the bass player for Echoes of Solitude, is a friend of mine. I've been keeping up with photos from shows they've played and on a whim, I reached out to him and asked if they did fundraisers. QVF has done online auctions and we receive private donations, but we have never held a live event and we thought we'd see if we could throw something together.

QVF Ambassador Jonathan Furman, Bass player for Echoes of Solitude 

Christian Justus, and Executive Director Rachel Brummert.

It was beyond our wildest dreams.

Christian put me in touch with Chris Rosenbaum of Dark Anubis Promotions. We went from one band to five.

QVF Ambassador Jonathan Furman and his girlfriend Paula Morgan came out to help me. As we walked up the ramp, we were greeted by Chris Welborn, a member of the band Service of Shadows, and the awesome guy who planned our event. He did an amazing job.

Chris introduced us to everyone and they were so welcoming and helpful. We really enjoyed getting to know everyone.

What struck me before the show, and certainly during the show, was that there was a true sense of friendship and fellowship. The bands didn't keep to themselves until their set. They were dancing and cheering for each other and truly enjoyed each others music and company.

QVF Executive Director Rachel Brummert with

lead singers from goddess Crow, Echoes of Solitude, and Helafyde.

I confess, Metal was never my thing. But I had an amazing time last night. All 5 bands were at the top of their game, And. Were. Awesome. The energy is infectious.

While the bands were setting up, they came over to us and were looking at all our awareness materials and they were horrified by what they saw and heard about fluoroquinolone antibiotics. They helped us pass out brochures and flyers. They wore our wrist bands. They told us stories of people they know who take these medications.

QVF Ambassador Jonathan Furman was called up to the stage to talk about our work. Jon is a guy who commands an audience and does it with humor. I spent 12 hours with him and Paula Morgan. They were so helpful and so fun to be around.

 There was a guy who is also from New Jersey who was there and we bonded over that. 

There was a woman there whose mother took a fluoroquinolone antibiotic. We left some brochures with her. I wish I spent more time with her but it was so chaotic when I got there, so if she is reading this, please feel free to follow up with me. I was very touched that she came out to support us.

One story I will never forget was when a young woman named Rebecca came up to us. She is a caretaker for a 14 year old girl who has a chromosomal disorder. This teenage girl had several back surgeries and her last surgery was botched. She was put on Levaquin to prevent infection. She is paralyzed and suffered severe psychosis after taking it. Doctors couldn't figure out why that was happening to her. Rebecca told us she was reading our brochure and had an “ah-ha” moment. Jonathan and I spent a long time talking to her and we are dedicated to doing what we can to help her. She left us this note. We are only showing the bottom portion to protect her privacy. We were really touched that she wrote this for us.

Some of the bands asked us to leave brochures with them so they can continue helping us spread the word at other shows. They all genuinely care about the work we do.

The promoter and the bands have already asked us to do other events. We are honored and can't wait to do more.

To say that the event was a huge success is an understatement. We could not be more pleased with how it went.

As a thank you, we gave plaques to Dark Anubis Promotions, and to all of the bands. They were so surprised and grateful and they all gave me a big hug afterward.

To quote Rick, the lead singer from Helafyde: “We're huggers”.

I loved that.

The bands posted a photo of them with a thank you to us.

Every member of each band have a joyous love for music and have big hearts. There are not enough words in my vocabulary to express how I felt being in the midst of these talented and genuine people.

We thank the following for everything they've done for us:

The Grog & Tankard for hosting us.

Chris Rosenbaum, Chris Welborn, and Christian Justus for working so hard to put together this amazing show.

Helafyde, especially the lead singer who is the coolest dude ever and spent a lot of time talking to us about our work.

Echoes of Solitude.

Service of Shadows

goddness Crow (whose lead singer's name is also Rachel)

ZFL

We had a blast and appreciate everyone who came together to make this special for us.

All of the photos we took from the event can be found here.  

If you were unable to attend, but would like to still help us continue our mission to fund research into Fluoroquinolone Toxicity, advocate for victims and their families, raise awareness about these very dangerous medications, and to educate the medical community, as well as help medical centers re-write their policies about Levaquin, Cipro, Avelox, and others:

donations@saferpills.org via PayPal

or

Quinolone Vigilance Foundation
PO Box 4023
Hamilton, NJ 08610

We are a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation and all donations are tax deductible.


Rachel Brummert
President/Executive Director
Quinolone Vigilance Foundation
www.SaferPills.org
Rachel@saferpills.org