This month I give over this space to an important message from Just a Bunch of Roadies. —PLSN Editor Michael S. Eddy
A Society Grows Great When Old Men Plant Trees in Whose Shade They Shall Never Sit
After a couple decades of success in the live event industry Lori Tierney and Charlie Hernandez teamed up to form the non-profit organization JABOR—Just a Bunch of Roadies. John Campion was their guardian angel. Together, they’d change the trajectory of international and domestic disaster relief. And in Spring 2023, JABOR expanded from disaster relief to education, with an initial pledge of $130,000 in scholarship funding to help students at Pennsylvania College of Art & Design and the Academy of Live Technology, located at Rock Lititz, pursue their degree in Live Experience Design & Production.
The Lori Tierney-John Campion Memorial Education Grant is named in loving memory of two of JABOR’s founders, both champions in the industry. Campion died at 57, in 2020, from leukemia, and Tierney at 58 that same year, from cancer. The story of the scholarship fund really is an extension of JABOR’s philanthropic mission: To use their logistical know-how and skills to bring relief to those who most need it—and to make sure that logistical know-how and those skills get passed to a new generation of live event technicians. With the scholarship fund JABOR is focusing attention on the tidal shift coming to the industry: The older generation, the one that built the industry and its ever-more-complicated live events, is aging out.
How does Hernandez hope the scholarship will impact its recipients? “They need to be aware,” he says, “of the ‘butterfly effect’ of it all: Not just how seemingly chance encounters have resulted in a huge impact for JABOR’s members, but how those same encounters can impact the students’ lives, too. We are a family business, a family of brothers and sisters we’ve picked up along the way, who have answered the JABOR call and contributed to ongoing projects. Ours is one of the few industries where we can accomplish the seemingly impossible with just a phone call and a handshake. The incredible generosity from donors, with the opportunities their careers and backgrounds afforded them, have contributed greatly to this scholarship. Our objective is to inspire the new vanguard of young industry professionals to pick up the torch lit by these very people who paved the way for them.”
Hernandez notes for those wanting to get involved with philanthropy, “You have to be open to your heart and see what’s happening to you and reflect on what just happened. If you’re in tune enough, you’ll see the opportunities and what’s going on around you—you can’t force it. You just have to be there, and be aware. You’ve got to get out of bed and then have the moral responsibility to give back, to open doors, to put your hand out to a stranger. There is no such thing as a small act of kindness. ‘Yes’ is always the answer. That’s the secret: Listen. Look. Take it in. Do better, and don’t just take it all for granted. Just don’t forget the love bit …”
