Acoustic Joe will use music for a good cause.
By: Stacey Gorski
Six months ago, Joe Fonseca, also known as Acoustic Joe, was admitted to the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Edison. He had been diagnosed with cancer and had to spend three weeks at the hospital.
"One night, I was in a lot of pain and I couldn’t sleep, so I decided to go for a walk around the ward. I went down the hall, and I saw these coloring pictures on the wall. I realized I was in the kids’ ward," Mr. Fonseca said.
He decided he didn’t want to see "any bald kids," so he did a quick turn around and headed back to his own room. He still couldn’t sleep.
"I decided right then that I had to do something for these kids," he said.
With his own cancer now in remission and his hair slowly growing back, Monroe resident Joe Fonseca is going to take to the stage for Toys for Tots Christmas Party With Acoustic Joe and Friends at Clubhouse Bar and Grill on Spotswood-Englishtown Road from 9 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Dec. 22.
Admission to the show is a toy donation. The toys will go to children with cancer at John F. Kennedy Hospital and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick. There also will be a 50/50 raffle with the proceeds going to Deborah Hospital for children.
"The toys can be for a boy or a girl, but it needs to be unwrapped. On New Year’s Eve, I am going to deliver them to the hospitals," Mr. Fonseca said.
Mr. Fonseca intends to take his 8-year-old daughter with him on the delivery run.
"I am trying to show her to be thankful for what she has. Most of these kids aren’t really poor, it’s just to show that people are thinking about them while they are stuck in the hospital," he said.
The show will not be Mr. Fonseca’s first public show by any means. He has traveled back and forth across the country performing in different venues. However, this is the first time he will be performing solely for charitable purposes.
"This is the first major event I am in charge of, and it is the first major event where I won’t be getting anything in return," he said.
Mr. Fonseca has put together a cast of 11 volunteers who will play at the benefit concert. Mr. Fonseca, who plays the guitar and has a harmonica hookup, will play his own solo acoustic covers of Neil Young songs.
"I used to do a whole Neil Young show before I got sick. I think it’s pretty good. People have told me they can close their eyes, and it sounds like a Neil Young concert," he said.
Acoustic Joe has gotten about a dozen other performers to join him for the benefit concert. He will be perform with Tom Pelino, doing a duet of Creedence Clearwater Revival songs.
Mr. Fonseca has enlisted just about anyone who wanted to help out including his neighbor.
"I can’t remember his last name, but Dave, my neighbor, will sit in and do a little acoustic Kiss stuff," Mr. Fonseca said.
Also performing will be Chuck Hanson, who will perform with a four -member band, including a female lead singer.
"Sometime that night, there will be a nice Dave Matthews set, some Bob Seger stuff, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty and Led Zeppelin."
So far, he is aware of about 100 people who plan to attend, and he is hoping for a crowd of at least that size.
"There are plenty of kids that are sick, so the more toys the better," he said.