121211 John Schmid performance to benefit hospital auxiliary’s fight against breast cancer

  • By Sharon Haught
  • December 6, 2011
  • 325
                        
Summary: Renowned local musician John Schmid will present a benefit concert to support the Wooster Community Hospital Auxiliary’s mammogram project on Dec. 16 at 7:30 at the First Presbyterian Church in Wooster. The statistics are sobering. In 2011, the American Cancer Society estimates that 290,000 new cases of breast cancer will be reported and 40,000 people will lose their fight against this devastating disease. For the past 20 years, the Wooster Community Hospital Auxiliary has lead the fight against breast cancer by providing free mammograms to patients who could otherwise not afford this potentially lifesaving early detection screening. According to Wooster Community Hospital Volunteer Services Coordinator Carla Redick each year the Auxiliary spends $25,000 to provide 2500 mammograms to uninsured patients referred to the hospital by their physicians. Since the program was launched two decades ago tens of thousands of free mammograms have been provided to those in need. According to Auxiliary Vice President Mary Alice Streeter, the need for the free mammogram service has increased substantially over the past five years as patients suddenly found themselves uninsured due to job loss. With an ever growing need for the service, the Auxiliary turned to renowned local musician John Schmid for help in raising funds for the program. On Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m. Schmid will present a special evening of holiday and Johnny Cash music at the First Presbyterian Church in Wooster to benefit the program. According to Streeter the benefit concert is free of charge but a goodwill offering will be taken to support the Auxiliary’s mammogram program and Schmid’s ministry. Prior to Schmid’s performance, the Auxiliary will host a silent auction and hors d'oeuvres donated by local businesses starting at 6:00 p.m. Streeter noted that the items up for auction were all donated by local businesses and individuals. Included in the wide variety of auction items up for bid are holiday decorations, framed art, a collection of handmade American Girl Doll cloths, date night packages, gourmet food baskets, cosmetics baskets and gift cards to area restaurants and stores. Schmid’s holiday benefit concert marks the second time this year Schmid has offered his talents to the Auxiliary. Before a crowd of more than 800, Schmid presented a concert in honor of his late mother – Lorain Schmid – at the John Streeter Garden Amphitheater at Secrest Arboretum in August. Lorain Schmid, who passed away in April of this year, worked as a volunteer at the hospital as a member of the Auxiliary for 39 years. John Schmid, a former country singer who traded his dreams of stardom in Nashville for the ministry, is the founder of Common Ground Ministries, a unique Berlin based music ministry which focuses on prisons in the Ohio corrections system. Each year Schmid’s ministry goes into more than 50 prisons and 30 churches and performs at numerous concerts, seminars, camps and street fairs. The group also provides Bibles and Bible no cost correspondence courses to Ohio prisoners. Schmid has also recorded more than a dozen country, gospel, bluegrass and folk albums, including tribute albums to Johnny Cash and the June Carter Cash family, both of which were recorded in Cash’s own private studio - the Cash Cabin Studio - outside Nashville. The Wooster Community Hospital Auxiliary was founded in 1951 as a not-for-profit organization. Its mission is to support the health care needs of the community and the patients and staff of Wooster Community Hospital. According to Auxiliary officials over the past ten years the organization has donated over $1.5 million to the hospital including vans, the free valet parking service for hospital patients and visitors and the mammogram project. Each year Auxiliary members also donate thousands of hours to the hospital providing inter-building mail delivery services, staffing the reception desk, taking baby pictures, sewing hospital gowns and running the hospital gift shop. For more information on the Wooster Community Hospital Auxiliary log on the hospital website - www.woosterhospital.org. Information on John Schmid’s music and ministry can be found at www.JohnSchmid.com.


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