10,000 Maniacs performs in Vista Saturday at a fundraiser for Parkinson's disease research. (Summit for Stem Cell)
Parkinson’s disease research is getting a lift from the alternative rock group 10,000 Maniacs, which is performing a benefit concert Saturday in Vista.
The concert benefits Summit for Stem Cell Foundation, a community initiative with patients, scientists and doctors to develop a Parkinson’s treatment.
For tickets and more information about the event at Moonlight Amphitheatre, go to j.mp/10kparkinsons. Concessions open at 6:30 p.m., and the band is scheduled to perform at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets start at $25 for lawn seating to $150 for VIP seating. A private orchestra section dinner will be catered by Pamplemousse Grill chef and owner Jeffrey Strauss. Diners can meet bandmembers after the event. Some sponsorship dinners are still available.
Funds will also be raised through sponsorships, live and silent auctions, and a drawing.
10,000 Maniacs bass guitarist Steven Gustafson said the group agree to help because the cause is worthy of support, and in addition the group’s schedule permitted it.
“It’s really a simple thing,” he said. “Our agent calls and says there’s a concert going on, and they’d like us to be part of the event. If we’re available and can make it work, we say, yeah.”
Supporters of various causes often like to arrange for a “spectacle” to get public awareness, Gustafson said.
“When you get 10,000 Maniacs on the stage, people will pay attention,” he said.
Summit for Stem Cell is supporting scientists led by Jeanne Loring of The Scripps Research Institute. Their goal is to replace brain cells destroyed in the disease with new brain cells, grown from stem cells produced from the patients themselves.
The treatment could provide long-term relief from symptoms, if not a permanent cure, the group says. Loring and colleagues have demonstrated the method in animal models. But more money is needed to complete the work required before human clinical trials can be authorized.
Summit for Stem Cell seeks $8 million to complete the studies required by the Food and Drug Administration and to begin clinical trials in 2019.
Go to www.summitforstemcell.org for more information about the Parkinson’s effort. For the band’s website, go to maniacs.com.
https://youtu.be/qELP_KBPgoA
“Failure is just not an option,” said Summit member Jenifer Raub, who has Parkinson’s. “There’s too many people who need this.”
Raub, a Moonlight stage manager, said her industry connections helped find the band. The logistics making the event possible were donated by a local team including Vista’s Power Plus Productions.
“They worked shoulder-to-shoulder with me the whole way through, donating lighting equipment and crew,” she said.
Strauss is going beyond catering, providing fine beverages in return for donations.
Bassist Gustafson said group members have their own personal causes they feel particularly close to.
For him, it’s cancer.
“My mother died of cancer, and I certainly wish we could have done more for her, but we couldn’t,” Gustafson said.
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/biotech/sd-me-10000-maniacs-parkinsons-20180502-story.html
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