Journey Rocks The Lyric & Raises $250K For Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center
BALTIMORE (WJZ)—A concert with a cause. One of the most popular rock bands of all time performed at The Lyric on Sunday. Journey helped raise more than $250,000 for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.
Mary Bubala has more on the cause.
Journey rocked The Lyric Opera House in Baltimore, raising a quarter of a million dollars for the Living With Cancer Resource Program at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Earlier members of Journey spent time at the Kimmel Cancer Center meeting Kara Becker, a patient undergoing chemotherapy for leukemia.
Journey's lead guitarist Neil Schon says the band loves to give back.
"It keeps you grounded, keeps you in touch with what's really going on, not where you are living in your little bubble sometimes, and so it's good," Schon said.
The money raised goes to supportive care programs and education for cancer patients and their families at Hopkins hospital.
"I think it meant a lot to them to come down here to the hospital, see the cancer center, see people who are benefitting from treatment, and I think you are going to see a very emotional performance from them," said Dr. Bill Nelson, Kimmel Cancer Center director.
Journey is the largest name yet for the benefit concert started by Paul Reed Smith guitars more than 10 years ago.
The Becker family got involved in the fundraiser long before they knew it would hit so close to home.
"We ended up getting involved year after year, but never realizing that we would end up needing the services of the hospital," Becker said.
Journey came to Baltimore because of its connection with Paul Reed Smith guitars. And for more than a decade PRS guitars has raised more than $2 million for the cancer center at Hopkins.
