The fifth edition of the annual Dream Show, a fundraiser for St. John’s Daffodil Place, is aiming to make $75,000 this year, said event organizer David Barnes.
Barnes, along with co-organizers Cleo Goodridge and Krysta Malloy, is organizing the concert, taking place this year at the Holiday Inn May 26.
This year’s show will feature rock cover group YYT and The Navigators.
In previous years, the show has raised funds up to $50,000, Barnes said.
Daffodil Place is a Canadian Cancer Society-operated hostel for people with cancer and their caregivers who need to travel to
St. John’s for cancer treatments.
Funds from the Dream Show will help keep accommodation costs low for Daffodil Place’s residents, and will also go toward the volunteer driving program, support groups, and making sure items such as wigs are always available.
Barnes said people from St. John’s should come to the concert in order to support their fellow Newfoundlanders.
“The people who live in St. John’s probably typically won’t use Daffodil Place where they live here, close to the hospital,” Barnes said.
“For people outside St. John’s who may not have family to stay with or can’t afford to stay a long period of time in a hotel, it’s good to have a place like this for those people to stay and to be able to afford that.”
Barnes said he was inspired to start the Dream Show after losing an uncle and a grandfather to cancer in 2008, the same year the Daffodil Place concerts started.
“I wanted to do an event for an organization and at that time Daffodil Place was a popular organization to donate to, so that’s where that started,” Barnes said.
Matthew Piercy, executive director of the Canadian Cancer Society in Newfoundland and Labrador, said the Dream Show’s fundraising goes a long way in helping the Society enhance the quality of life of people living with Cancer.
“(Barnes and his team) are very hard working and dedicated volunteers and strongly believe in what Daffodil Place has to offer for people living with cancer,” Piercey said in an email.
Already in its fifth year, the annual event shows no signs of stopping. Barnes said next year’s show has already been booked for June 8, 2013.
cassie.aylward@thetelegram.com
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