Three local bands perforn benefit concert for family of brain tumor victim
Three local bands will perform in a benefit concert to raise money for the family of Jeff Hobbs, who recently died of cancer.
Passenger, Lokalgrown and Sara Graves will play in the Taggart Student Center Ballroom Thursday starting at 7:30 p.m. The concert is open to all with a minimum donation of $3 per person, said Matt Sadowski, a senior majoring in finance and economics and a member of Lokalgrown.
Nate Davis, a senior majoring in marketing and a guitarist and vocalist for Lokalgrown, said he is glad he gets a chance to participate in the concert with his band.
“We just love playing,” he said. “But when it’s a cause like this, it just makes you feel really good. It opens your eyes to the reality of everything. He was a pretty young guy.”
Mike Christensen, a senior majoring in marketing and economics, knows the Hobbs family and wanted to help when he heard about Jeff’s disease.
“I knew the wife of the deceased and her whole family,” he said. “I wanted to help out, and since I’m a poor college kid and don’t have any money, I thought a benefit concert to raise money would be a good idea.”
Christensen has been planning the concert since July. It was originally going to be held in September, but he decided to use it as a group project for his MHR 3110 class, he said.
“When I found out I had to do a group project, I decided to get together with my group and do this because it was already more or less planned. Now, it’s huge.”
Sadowski, who performs vocals and percussion for Lokalgrown, said, “We thought this would be a good project to do. The Hobbs were having a hard time because they couldn’t get any money, so we said ‘yeah, let’s do it.'”
The group decided to form the Legacy of Life Committee in an attempt to make the concert a continuing tradition to help families in need in the community, Christensen said.
“Our biggest goal is to have it become a tradition,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to have an event where it gives back to members of the community instead of to one of the bigger charities.
“And it’s a fun thing for the students besides. They get to hear some great music, and it’s not that expensive,” he said.
The committee will be presenting their idea to various clubs and organizations, including the Val R. Christensen Service Center, to try and continue on a tradition, Sadowski said.
“We want to create something that will last a while and give back to the community and people in need,” he said.
The concert has many corporate and local sponsors, including Coke and Lowe’s, which have donated nearly $7,000-worth of airtime on local radio stations, sound equipment, banners and numerous gift certificates, Christensen said.
Both Jeff Hobbs and his wife Haley graduated from Utah State, and Haley’s father, Ken Curtis, is a professor in communicative disorders and deaf education at USU, he said. Christensen approached Curtis about the Hobbs family when he first heard about their troubles.
“Jeff and Haley are both Logan natives and fantastic people,” he said. “These are the type of people you do stuff like this for. The cause is awesome, the family’s great and their needs are huge.
“He suffered for three years. Haley is a very strong woman. She’s got it together. I have such an admiration for that family,” he said.
Davis said, “There are a lot of people around the community who knew [Jeff]. He was an all-around great guy; it’s a great family.”
Jeff died Sept. 22, leaving behind his wife and a young son, Easton, who need financial help because of his loss and medical bills, Christensen said.
“They are left behind with house payments and tens and tens of thousands of medical bills and burial costs,” he said. “They had just gotten into their house because they thought he was going to pull through. It is hard for her to go out and work as a single mother.”
Hobbs was diagnosed with a fast-growing brain tumor within weeks of returning from his honeymoon with his new wife, Christensen said.
“They get married, come home from their honeymoon and within weeks he is complaining of dizzy spells and headaches,” he said.
The Hobbs flew to Portland several times to see a specialist, but as Jeff’s condition worsened, they were refused treatment because there was nothing more the doctors could do for him, Christensen said.
Originally, the concert was to be before Jeff passed away to help pay for his treatments, but now it will go to his family, Christensen said.
“We wanted to do this when Jeff was alive,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it when I found out he’d died. I felt horrible.”