EVENT PREVIEW: Show Some Heart by Helping Isaac's

Benefit for Isaac Dauphin featuring
Vultures!, My October and Voodoo Mafia
Friday April 24
The Coach & Horses, 156 Chatham St. West, below Pogo's
Doors at 9pm, 19+, $5 minimum donation at the door

Over the past few weeks, there's been all kinds of calls to arms by the local music community to raise awareness, and more importantly funds, for some very special causes in our Windsor community.

I mentioned last week about two very special cancer benefits going on - tonight's Cancer Foundation Pasta Dinner at The Mill (3199 Sandwich St.) with Client 9 handling the music and next week's 24 Hour Drum Marathon by Jeff Burrows at The Blind Dog (762 Ouellette Ave.) for Transition 2 Betterness.

This Friday, we have another special benefit show and this is one that has a story that has captivated the city.

As reported last week in The Windsor Star, Isaac Dauphin was born March 27th here in Windsor. But tragedy struck almost immediately, as new parents Chad and Stephanie Dauphin were stricken with horror as young Isaac started turning blue and had trouble breathing. Four days later and he was airlifted to Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital for tests.

In turns out that baby Isaac has hypoplastic left heart syndrome. HLHS is a rare, congenital heart defect where the left side of the heart is severely underdeveloped and it usually requires three stages of operations to correct this - with success still not avoiding the very real possibilities of chronic health problems, coupled with the fact that HLHS can only be stabilized, not cured. There is a very real chance that Isaac will need a heart transplant later on during an early part of his life.

What this amounts to, especially in these tough economic times, is a long running series of medical expenses to keep Isaac Dauphin alive. Bills that these young parents - or anyone right now - are capable of handling alone.

With that in mind, with the assistance of Sarah Jacobs, local rockers Vultures! have turned their Friday night show at The Coach & Horses (156 Chatham St. West, below Pogo's) into a special benefit show for the Dauphins and their medical expenses. The minimum donation is $5 (but please feel free to donate more!) at the door, with ALL monies collected going to this great cause.

Joining Vultures! on this special bill are Windsor's grunge rock champions Voodoo Mafia and Toronto pop-punk band (and former Windsorites) My October.

Even if you can only stop by for a quick beer or to make a donation, I encourage everyone to make it out to the Coach & Horses this Friday night. It will make a lasting impression, on us as a musical community within a larger community, but more importantly on a young family's future and a young boy's life.