Talent show raises money for wounded veterans
By: Alice Tessier 06/03/2005
Brookfield Journal, CT
June 3 2005
It also raised money for Wounded Warriors, a non-profit organization
that seeks to meet unfilled needs of injured veterans of the Iraqi
and Afghanistani conflicts.
The “mega effort,” as First Selectman Jerry Murphy and his wife,
Susan, called it in their letter to the editor this week (see Page
4) was an unqualified success for BHS students Stephanie Davies and
Danielle Gaddy, whose senior project was to marshal support for the
organization.
It was also a source of great joy and satisfaction for Linda Davies,
Stephanie’s mother and the talent show’s producer.
“We had about 500 people every night, which for Brookfield is really
good and for Memorial Day weekend really very good,” she said. “And
we raised $15,000, which makes all the effort worthwhile.”
She dedicated the show to her 90-year-old father-“a proud American”-who
is a member of a Christian Armenian family that was persecuted in
Iran when he was very young.
“My father was 12 when he came to this country,” Mrs. Davies
recounted. “They got him out by dressing him up as a girl, and he lived
in a few other places before he came here. His father committed suicide
when he was imprisoned in Iran for refusing to give up his faith.”
“My dad always said that America would have to set foot in the Middle
East,” she continued. “Many people-not only Armenians but Lebanese,
Greeks, Syrians, Iranians …a large culture of Middle Eastern
people-came to this country because they wanted to be free.
“Freedom is for everybody,” Mrs. Davies continued. “No one is happy
unless he is free.”
“My father always said, ‘There is no prouder American than an
immigrant.’ That’s why doing this show was so important to me-it’s
for every soldier who went into war to help others be free,” the
Brookfield resident said. “I’m really patriotic because I came to this
realization through my family’s own history. They knew what they had
here, and they knew what that had to leave in order to survive.”
“I was a flower child, and I think that most of my generation feel
guilty about the way that those who served in Vietnam were treated
afterward,” Mrs. Davies said, referring those who advocated peace
during the Vietnam War era of the 1960s.
“It was a misinterpretation-we were never against them but the war.
In my age group we feel we didn’t do enough for them when they came
back from the war, and we feel guilty about the terrible effect it
had on them and for their whole life,” she added. “That’s why I think
there’s so much support for our soldiers fighting now, whether we
agree with this war [in Iraq] or not. We don’t want them to feel we
don’t appreciate them.”
The Davies family got in touch with a local serviceman serving
in Iraq-Army Lt. Tim Walsh-during the Christmas holidays. He not
only contributed photographs and a video illustration of what life
is like for the U.S. military troops in Iraq for the benefit show
but was also in the audience Sunday with his wife, Allison Ugosoli,
and family members to enjoy the talent show, which featured about 80
participants, according to the producer.
“In December, we got Tim Walsh’s name from the Hawleyville Post
Office,” said Mrs. Davies in an earlier interview. “We sent three
huge boxes of goodies and necessities for him and his fellow soldiers
in Iraq, [but] we had no idea that Tim was from Brookfield until he
wrote us a thank you letter.
“After finding out he graduated from BHS in 1986, we thought that
this was just meant to be,” she said. “We were already planning our
benefit/variety show … and asked Tim to make a movie for us.”
“Stand By Me” featured songs from Broadway musicals as well as
performances by members of the BHS Drama Club, the BHS Dance Team,
the BHS Drumline, Jean Pierre Ferragamo, pianist Elyssa Samsel,
students from the town’s four public schools and the Bhangra Dancers.