New Jersey Stage December 2014 | Page 78

nate their time? Again, coming from this community, this is a place where people care about someone who has slipped between the cracks or needs a helping hand. You would also be very surprised at how many musicians involved have a direct connect with someone who has Parkinson’s be it a family member or a friend. There are many of us where Bob Benjamin is that person. But I also cannot disregard the many performers who don’t have any reason beside just wanting to be a good person in this life and help out folks who need a helping hand. There are many of those folks that we are fortunate to have in our LOD family. What do you hope attendees get out of the experience of Light of Day each year? Besides great music, talent and songs I think folks truly get the sense of the real Light of Day community that has organically grown to what it is today. I am not sure there is another music festival in the world that hosts as many shows, has as many artists involved and is all put together and run by a full volunteer board of directors like Light of Day. I certainly have never seen or heard of one and I take great pride in being part of something that special. It all started with Bob Benjamin, a small birthday party and a selfless act of not asking for gifts but instead to donate to Parkinson’s research. It makes great sense to me that something so selfless should turn into something very wonderful over these past 15 years. As a very wise man once said: “from small things mama, big things one day come”. They certainly do. Light of Day takes place January 9-19, 2015 visit www.LightofDay.org for dates New Jersey Stage December 2014 pg 78