Local band organizes teen benefit concert

POULSBO — When you see someone down, that’s the time to pick them up.

Understanding this mentality, local teen musician Beau Breakey has spearheaded an effort to raise money for fellow North Kitsap teen April Rauch, who was recently diagnosed with a brain lesion on her pituitary gland.

“About three months ago, I was at band practice and I had heard about my teacher’s daughter who had been diagnosed with a brain (lesion) and it made me mad,” Breakey said. “I’m only 15-years-old and there’s not many things I can do to help people but I am good at organizing things, so I thought this is a way I can help.”

Breakey makes up one-third of the Poulsbo-based band Somebody Stop Melvin, which will be part of a six-band line-up at the “Put April First” concert at 6 p.m. April 1 at the North Kitsap High School auditorium. Admission is $8 per person and proceeds will be split between the April Rauch Fund to help pay for Rauch’s medical bills and the Hayden Strum Foundation for Cancer Research.

In October, April kept having horrible headaches that wouldn’t go away, said her mother Nancy. So they scheduled an MRI, which revealed something clinging to April’s brain.

The initial results pointed to a cancerous tumor, but later the family was relieved to learn it was actually a non-infectious brain lesion which would not require surgery or chemotherapy, Nancy said.

Still, April’s pituitary gland — where the lesion resides — will be under-active, requiring that she take pills everyday for the rest of her life. But that is good news in relation to the situation, Nancy said.

“(We) can be thankful for all the things that it’s not,” she said.

The Rauch’s are also thankful to be able to share in the money that the “Put April First” concert should provide.

“It’s a good way to support local music and support a good cause,” Breakey said. “Six different bands, six different styles, it’s just gonna be like a rock and roll show.”

Along with Breakey’s band Somebody Stop Melvin — which is set to play third on the evening — another Poulsbo act, Final Hour, will open the show. Sirens Sister (formerly Vendetta Red) of Seattle will be second. The Tinsmen and Patterns of Bremerton will play fourth and fifth and Ruxton Towers of Seattle will close the show.

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