Concert call for fire victims

CASEY Council River Gum Ward councillor Wayne Smith has called for a concert to help in the recovery and rebuilding process that thousands of people will have to go through because of the disastrous fires.
Cr Smith is an experienced entertainment entrepreneur and is asking for expressions of interest from entertainers and those who could help backstage.
He also asks the question of whether the concert should be a fund-raiser or a free event.
My view is that it should be a free concert with a facility to donate. And he asks whether it should be an outdoor or indoor event.
He has called a meeting of people interested in helping with the concert, to be held at the Casey Civic Centre at 7.30pm on Thursday 12 February (tomorrow).
I’m not sure about an outdoor venue, because of weather – something that hasn’t been too kind to us of late.
I vividly recall the Cockatoo disaster from ‘Ash Wednesday’ 1983 and wonder if an event such as this would have helped in what was a slow and arduous rebuilding process.
Some light relief would have been a God-send.
Casey was devastated by the ‘Ash Wednesday’ fires and has been seriously impacted this time so far, but not to the same degree.
Cr Smith’s proposal would therefore be a gesture coming from all those who can remember the hurt and frustration that comes from widespread conflagration.
What if he sets this up in Casey and everything is in place such as performers and back stage people and it works well?
Why not take the concert on the road to some of the areas that suffered most.
This could happen with council support. Perhaps performers unable to attend several concerts could be interchanged with people from the specific areas who have talent.
Places such as Marysville and Narbethong may not have a venue and such an event may need to be outdoors. This is the second time that Narbethong has been razed by fire.
A ‘Thinking of You’ concert would be a massive morale booster and if free, with a facility to donate, would also be a fund-raiser. With a little publicity big-name entertainers may become involved and people would come from all over.
Residents within burned-out communities would know they were not alone in the long haul to rebuild their homes.
We need to remember that these fires were ferocious enough to destroy a bunch of houses – but not a bunch of communities.