Concert will help give child another chance
By SUZANNE R. STONE Staff writer
Area bands will be making beautiful music to help a little girl recover from catastrophe Saturday at the Sydney Elizabeth Parker Benefit Concert.
The concert will be from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday at Citizens Park and will feature the Joseph Christie Band, Godspeed, the Nate Barbour Band and Eleventhour. Admission is free, and donations will be taken; donations in any amount enter the donor in a raffle for an "A Night on the Town in Aiken" package, according to event organizer Jim Moore, a friend of the Parker family.
"The idea came about through Sydney's page on www.caringbridge.org," Moore said. "Sydney's grandfather works with a gentleman named Hank Chavous who is in the band Eleventhour. He posted on their CaringBridge site sometime in January that they'd love to do a benefit concert for her, but he didn't know Aiken and needed someone to organize the whole thing. At that point my wife Emily and I decided we'd do the organizing."
Sydney, now age 5, suffered a severe head injury in an accident three years ago which effectively halted her development, froze her control of her left side and left her subject to seizures. In February she underwent a left hemispherectomy in hopes that the right hemisphere of her brain can take over the functions the left side of her brain was unable to access.
"She's doing great, progressing well; she has not had a seizure since her surgery. She's getting her speech back, and she's walking on her own, which she wasn't doing right after the surgery. What she needs is continuing therapy. They still need to work with her in speech therapy, and she still doesn't have the full use of one side," Moore said.
Proceeds from the concert will go toward her rehabilitation efforts at Hitchcock Healthcare, according to Moore.
"We have three young daughters, and I can't imagine being in that situation. But not once have I heard Monica and Andrew Parker say, 'Why is this happening to us?' They've really embraced everything; they're really extraordinary people," said Moore.
Alcohol is prohibited at Saturday's free concert event, but coolers, chairs and picnic blankets are welcome. The "Night on the Town in Aiken" package will include a room at the Carriage House Inn, two tickets to the August production of "Always Patsy Cline," and dinner for two, according to Moore.
For more information about the concert or to make a donation, call 270-0158. For updates on Sydney's progress, go online to www.caringbridge.org/visit/sydneyelizabeth.
Contact Suzanne Stone at sstone@aikenstandard.com
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