Concert to benefit Homefront Hope
When members of Gary Racan’s Studio E Band take the stage Friday night for the Warriors Rock concert at Washington & Jefferson College, they won’t be alone.
Throughout the evening, the band will encourage area veterans, some of whom the band has already met, to join them, said Kimberly Racan, owner of Studio E Entertainment.
Kimberly Racan said Studio E has recorded interviews with eight local veterans, and each interview ends with the same question: What song were you thinking about when your tour of active duty ended? The band will then sing that song as a tribute to the veteran.
And one lucky veteran will get to hear the song he holds close to his heart, Darryl Worley’s “I Just Came Back From A War,” performed live by the country music artist.
“It is going to be so awesome,” Racan said.
The concert will end with the band leading the audience in a rendition of “God Bless the USA.”
All proceeds from the concert will benefit the Homefront Hope Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides the critical link among service members, veterans and the resources needed to ensure that all clinical needs are addressed when combat soldiers face an unexpected battle: coming home.
Although national tracking of suicide rates among veterans is reportedly suspect, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 22 veterans commit suicide each day. Homefront Hope is dedicated to funding behavioral and rehabilitative programs and future facilities so veterans don’t feel so isolated and can “return to full and productive lives.”
The organization was founded by Charlene Feldbusch of Blairsville, the mother and primary caregiver for her son, retired Army Sgt. Jeremy W. Feldbusch of the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, who has continued to beat the odds after he was critically wounded in Iraq.
Jeremy graduated from Derry Area High School in 1997 and received a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Pittsburgh in 2001 before enlisting in the U.S. Army.
He was serving on guard duty in Haditha, Iraq, about 100 miles from Baghdad, on April 3, 2003, when he was hit with enemy shrapnel. He was permanently blinded in both eyes, and he suffered traumatic brain injury. Doctors held out little hope that Jeremy would live, much less ever speak or function normally again.
He was placed in a coma for six weeks to minimize brain swelling and kept alive by a ventilator. Each time doctors attempted to remove the ventilator, Jeremy nearly died. On the sixth try, Jeremy was able to breathe on his own.
After recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and enduring several months of therapy, Jeremy returned home to Blairsville, where he lives with his mother and his father, Brace, and remains active in his mission to provide support to other wounded veterans.
During a recent – and brief – telephone conversation, Jeremy’s mother was preparing to take him to work.
Jeremy and his parents are among the 26 co-founders of the Wounded Warrior Project, which raises awareness and enlists public aid for the needs of severely injured veterans. Today, Jeremy works at the Pittsburgh regional office of the Wounded Warrior Project and accepts speaking engagements and visits veterans.