entertains sick children during visit to hospital
Impromptu concert was
just the right medicine
Popular band
entertains sick children during visit to hospital
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH — Angels from north of the border made last Saturday a little brighter for some children at Monmouth Medical Center.
The Canadian born and bred band, the Barenaked Ladies, made a special appearance at the hospital cafeteria last weekend and played a few of their most popular hits for an audience of patients from the pediatric wards and their families.
The band was brought to the hospital with the help of Hugo Harmatz, an attorney in West Long Branch.
Harmatz founded the Children’s Earth Angels Foundation, an organization that focuses on helping children in need, specifically those with life-threatening illnesses.
Harmatz is a friend of Kevin Hearn, the keyboardist in the band, who is a cancer survivor. Hearn was diagnosed with leukemia in March 1998.
Harmatz said he and Hearn had discussed doing a show like this as a way for the band to give back to the community.
Although the audience was made up of less then 70 people — a considerably smaller audience than the popular band usually plays to — and there were no microphones or amplifiers, the show was certainly a success.
Rich Ruggiero, Hazlet, attended the concert with his grandson, Cody Hughes, 11, a patient at the hospital.
"I am familiar with their music," said Ruggiero. "I think this was very nice."
The mood was kept light, though many of the children attending were seriously ill. At one point, singer and guitarist Ed Robertson walked over to the window that looked down over the main entrance.
"Look, someone’s bringing us flowers. We’re up here," Robertson said, knocking on the glass. "Maybe they’re not for us. They are my color, though," he improvised.
The "Ladies" played three of their more popular songs: "It’s All Been Done," "One Week" and "If I Had a Million Dollars." They then signed autographs, which the children compared after the band left.
After the show and signing of autographs, the band visited the rooms of children too sick to go down to the cafeteria for the concert and played a song for them.
Harmatz said he is grateful to the New Jersey State Police for providing transportation to and from PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, where the band played last week.
"They were just fantastic in helping out," Harmatz said.
The hospital gave the band Monmouth Medical T-shirts and caps in appreciation of the concert.