The Brown County Music Center will honor and celebrate veterans this weekend with a concert featuring Mac Powell and the Family Reunion.
Tracks4Vets is sponsoring this event and the music center is donating the facility, staff and production. Proceeds will help veterans get mobility devices, which Tracks4Vets builds.
Planning for this event has been in the works since May. Chad and Tricia Ringer, the founders of Tracks4Vets, and their director of veterans affairs, Chuck Lee, met with BCMC Audience Services Manager Andrea Swift-Hanlon to discuss the possibility of having a concert at the new venue for veterans, Tricia said, “with the goal of honoring and celebrating our veterans, bridging the veteran-civilian gap and raising funds to serve the veterans enrolled in our program.”
“Andrea not only understood the goals, but shared the passion and took it back to her team. When they came back with the offer of the facility, staff and production at no cost to Tracks4Vets, our jaws dropped. We thanked God, Andrea, Dana Beth (Evans) and Lauren (McCarroll).”
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]The show will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9 and tickets are available at browncounty.com/bcmc or by visiting the venue’s box office.
Chad and Tricia Ringer founded and own Ring-Co, a design manufacturing company in Trafalgar. A few years ago, Lee began working with Ring-Co building vehicles called Tracked Utility Carriers, or TUCs. It’s a combination of a skid steer and a utility tractor, designed to specifications of disabled people. It’s operated using a joystick.
The goal of the TUC is to help disabled veterans get back into nature and their daily routines.
Together, they’re looking to raise money to get six Brown County veterans into TUCs through the Tracks4Vets program. They’re working with community foundations in Brown, Morgan and Johnson counties to take donations.
Lee and Ring-Co don’t want veterans or first responders to have to pay for these machines, which is why they are relying on fundraising through Tracks4Vets.com.
The total cost for a TUC is $25,000. For every $25,000 that is received, Ring-Co will donate $2,500 to the Tracks4Vets program. There are veterans in Brown County who qualify to receive a TUC.
The BCMC Tracks4Vets sponsorship gave the program “the momentum to raise awareness of our scope and vision and to invite the community to join us,” Tricia said.
“The celebration of our veterans with a concert that represents the Tracks4Vets mission gave us permission to dream big.”
The show will feature special guest, Cpl. Josh Bleill, a double-amputee Marine and former spokesperson for the Colts. “Josh is excited to share a his inspirational story,” Tricia said.
The featured performer is Mac Powell, co-founder of the multi-platinum band Third Day. “The message of those songs, along with the soulful, Southern sound of his new band, the Family Reunion, represents our mission well,” Tricia said.
During the show, Tracks4Vets will demonstrate the three “tracks” offered in the program: Vocational, wellness and support, “and why we believe in a holistic approach to healing that offers our veterans purpose, hope and community,” Tricia said.
The audience also will learn how corporations, organizations and individuals can get involved by donating or volunteering with Tracks4Vets. “All proceeds go directly to providing tracks for veterans enrolled in the program,” Tricia said.
Merchandise will be sold and a silent auction is planned. All proceeds will go to Tracks4Vets.
“The most important aspect of the entire evening, however, is to come together — corporations and individuals, military and civilians — to honor, support, and especially, celebrate our veterans. This is the most respectful and fun way we could think of to do just that,” Tricia said.
Hanlon said the music center wanted to support this cause because it involves helping veterans “and shedding light on what our veterans sacrifice and face when they return home.”
“We knew that we could easily support this cause because our venue was the perfect location for Tracks4Vets to get their message out to a wide range of folks and celebrate our veterans,” she said.
