Will Read and Sing For Food

Could Hamilton County be next spot for Harry Chapin-inspired food bank charity event?

By SCOTT SAALMAN

Scaramouch

The most satisfying result of my column writing, to date, has been the creation of a benefit show, called Will Read and Sing For Food (WRASFF), a unique mix of humor essays and live music that has raised more than $162,000 for dozens of southern Indiana charities.

During its 150-show run from 2011 to 2018, WRASFF featured more than 100 musicians, writers, actors, dancers, speakers, and painters who donated their time and talent to entertain and help worthy causes. I produced and hosted the shows and read my humor columns. I was not allowed to sing (a local law perhaps). Our payoffs were applause, laughter, and knowing we were making a difference.

Harry Chapin (“Cat’s In The Cradle,” “Taxi”) inspired WRASFF. In 1980, when I was a high school freshman, a newspaper ad announced a Chapin concert in Evansville. The ad encouraged ticket-buyers to bring canned goods to the show to be donated to a food bank, the first time I learned how Harry used his fame to fight hunger.

Eventually, I learned much more about his philanthropical spirit and social activism. In a typical year, of 220 concerts performed, half or more supported worthy causes. I saw footage of an awed Bruce Springsteen recalling how Harry once told him, “I play one night for me and one night for the other guy.”

In 1975, with activist friend Bill Ayres, Harry co-created World Hunger Year (now called WhyHunger), which, according to whyhunger.org, continues “working to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food in the U.S. and around the world.”

My uncle Dave turned me into a Harry Head after introducing me to Chapin’s double album, Greatest Stories Live. No one ever crafted a better story song than “A Better Place to Be” or “Mr. Tanner.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t see Harry live in 1980. A year later, this chart-climbing “shooting star” crashed to earth when he perished in a Long Island Expressway accident. Still, his music remained in my psyche and on my turntable’s rotations. His servitude toward others made an indelible impression on me, too, though decades would pass before I would try to emulate him.

In my forties, I started volunteering at a local food bank, stacking cans on shelves, bagging groceries – simple tasks that anyone could do. On Wednesday nights, a line formed outside the building, people from my community needing food. I had no idea such a local need existed. I soon developed a hunger to do more, something creative and unique.

WRASFF resulted. I borrowed Harry’s idea to use storytelling and music to make a difference. The early shows supported Community Food Bank in Jasper. It didn’t take long though to use the power of the show to diversify into more causes, thus increasing our social impact. By branching out, our audience grew, as did donations.

Our final show, No. 150, was held close to Christmas 2018 at our favorite venue, Jasper’s Astra Theatre. It was a sell-out (though tickets were free). Still, fans donated to the theatre’s general fund. Then, WRASFF was no more.

We did blow off the cobwebs for one show in September 2020 at southern Indiana’s most sublime venue, Lincoln Amphitheatre. Despite the slight hindrance of face mask mandates and social distancing protocols, we couldn’t pass up the privilege to perform at the AMP on its Holy Grail of stages. I consider it our best WRASFF show, one show shy of my favorite WRASFF performance, show No. 150, during which I proposed to my then-girlfriend-now-wife Brynne on stage while 300-plus people witnessed our “enstagement.”

I never considered doing another WRASFF show. It required too much planning, marketing, and administrative work for a married man.

A few months after the AMP show, though, Harry came calling via a 2020 documentary, called Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something. The doc did a thorough job detailing Harry’s philanthropical spirit, so much achieved during a lifespan so short. Reinspired, I had to Do Something. Of course, COVID delayed putting anything real into action. Until now.

Come June 10, WRASFF show No. 152 will happen at the Astra. The show, PATTYFEST, will be in memory of my mother, Patty Saalman, who died last fall after a five-year battle with stage four colon cancer. Our biggest fan, she attended 145 WRASFF shows. We will fundraise for her favorite charity, Anderson Woods Special Needs Summer Camp, located in the sticks of Perry County. Before dying, Mom requested money be donated to the camp in lieu of  funeral home flowers. About $5,000 was raised for the camp’s new greenhouse.

We will also raise money for Next Act, Inc., to further support the Astra. WRASFF at the Astra represents a homecoming for us. We will bring our A game.

I will think a lot about Patty during PATTYFEST. Our No. 1 fan will be watching from a vantage point high above the balcony seats.

I will think of Harry, too. This whole crazy WRASFF thing wouldn’t have happened had a spark not been indirectly lit within me upon seeing that 1980 Evansville concert ad encouraging fans to help feed the food bank.

Show No. 152 represents yet another opportunity for me to further pay off a symbolic debt owed to Harry. When all is said and sung and Rafaela Copetti-Schaick ends our show with her traditional up-tempo Irish fiddle tune, you might hear me whisper, “Harry, keep the change.”

Scott, now a Fishers resident, is pondering the formation of a WRASFF show featuring musicians and humor writers to support non-political and non-religious nonprofits in Hamilton County. He needs a venue, great musicians, and charities to serve. Contact scottsaalman@gmail.com.