Our first show was held in Fremont, Michigan on October 20, 2007. Over $1,000 was raised for research, which will someday find a cure Cystic Fibrosis. Photos of the performances are posted at our MySpace page. Web Design and maintenance for this site and MySpace, and photography donated by Bill and Pam Warren. Local students manned the concessions.
After the show, Jim Kittle, the founder of Pickin’ on CF, made this statement:
Although I’m somewhat disappointed in the outcome of yesterday’s show, I’m certainly not going to feel bad about it. It was a great show and I’m proud to have been able to put on what I feel was a quality program. When I billed this show, I stated it was the best bluegrass bands Michigan had to offer. They certainly lived up to that. They were outstanding, they were all on their “A” game and I am grateful to them. The local support for this event was not as I expected and that was their loss.
I haven’t added up what the total profit was, it is somewhere around $1,000.00 to donate to CF. But, I think for me the best part of the evening was at the end. A couple came up to the stage and shook my hand. They had never been to a bluegrass show, and they loved it. They came because they lost a 13 year old son to CF in 1980. They wanted to come and support a CF event and thank me for doing this. During the last part of the evening I wasn’t sure I would ever do this again, but they reminded me why I was there. If there was only one dollar raised, it just might just be the last dollar needed to find a cure, that’s what this was all about. It’s not just raising a large about of money, it’s only about raising one dollar, the last ONE.
So, I am going to regroup, sit down a look at what I did wrong, what I did right, then figure out how to do this bigger and better. Those of us that have sons and daughters with this disease have too much at stake to give up.
To all of you that did support this show and those of you that traveled from other parts of the state, I thank you for your support and I hope you enjoyed the show and the beautiful fall colors in West Michigan.
God Bless,
Jimmy Kittle
Pickin’ On Cystic Fibrosis
