Needless to say, Aaron and the entire Lewis family has been busy these past couple weeks. He had many radio appearances to promote the benefit show and encourage people to attend. Word is the show raised a great deal of funds and you're all encouraged to continue to donate and spread the word about the foundation. Check out some of these links of Aaron recently discussing the foundation and the show as well as a little from the basketball Hall of Fame solo performance and Q & A.
The following interview was from a GazetteNet article......
WORTHINGTON - Aaron Lewis, frontman of the rock group , has Staind been quietly living in Worthington for years. But when the Gateway Regional School District decided to close three of the district's five elementary schools, including the Russell H. Conwell School in Worthington where his children attended school, Lewis decided the time to be quiet was over.
Lewis and his wife, Vanessa, were among the many parents, teachers and other residents who supported creation of a new, privately-funded school in the R. H. Conwell building on Huntington Road. When the district approved the school, called the R. H. Conwell Community Education Center, Lewis and his wife started the It Takes A Community Foundation to raise money for the school and other projects.
Today, Lewis will play an acoustic benefit concert for the foundation at the Pines Theater in Look Park, joined by a few musician friends who flew in to support his cause.
The Gazette talked with Lewis about the show and his work in support of the new school.
Q: What was your reaction when you heard about the consolidation and that the Conwell School was going to close?
A: To be honest, the overwhelming thought was that it was unacceptable. We had spent over a year giving them all sorts of outside-the-box ideas and alternative ways of dealing with the situation at hand, which was the lack of funding on behalf of the state, and they chose to take the easy way out, which was to close the school.
Q: What factors influenced your decision to keep your children at R. H. Conwell?
A: It's an amazing school. I don't know if you've been there, but it's adorable. It's one of the last wooden structure schools in the state and it's just the most amazing, perfect, small town school that you could ever want. And it's really part of the glue that binds the community together. We don't have any business or commerce, and the one thing we've got is the school.
Q: And your kids would have had a long bus ride to the Littleville Elementary School in Huntington, right?
A: Yes, it's about 20 minutes by car to the school, but by bus, being one of the first stops in the morning, it's at least an hour in each direction. Add snow into the mix, which you can for four or five months out of the year, and who knows how long it will take.
So my 5- and 8-year-old would have been put on a bus at six in the morning. My 5-year-old can't go half an hour in the car without having to pee.
That and the concept of piling the kids on top of each other in two schools when they used to have five schools, it's a vicious circle. That's why they have to add all these new positions like curriculum coordinator and math coach, because there's so many kids, the kids get lost in the shuffle. You wouldn't need a math coach if you had 10 kids in the class because you'd have all the one-on-one time in the world from your teacher.
So the whole concept doesn't make any sense.
Q: Tell me about your decision to start the It Takes a Community Foundation.
A: It was all from this whole experience. The foundation was a way to help other communities that might be going through the same thing or need assistance in some way that the small amount of tax dollars that's created with the small number of people living in town can't support. They could get assistance and do the things they wouldn't otherwise be able to do; anything that brings the community closer together.
This is just the first project. It's the launching platform.
Q: What are the main costs that you are fundraising to cover?
A: It's everything. The school district completely gutted the school. We had to buy back all the furniture, lease the building from the town and put an entire curriculum together. We had to put the school back together.
Q: Are you worried that the tuition at the school will deter people?
A: The deal is there is tuition, but no one will be turned away for not being about to afford it. The tuition is $1,500 a kid, with a family cap at $3,000, and that's for a private school education, and one that won't be hampered by governmental rules and regulations that don't help the education of our children at all.
Q: What kind of interest have you seen in the new school?
A: We have 47 students attending already, and I think for the first year we were planning on capping it at 50.
Q: Do you think you're in a good position to bring attention to the problem you see in Worthington?
A: I think attention needs to be brought to all sorts of problems that we have right now, and I'm just trying to do what I can do to get around those problems. I try to do good things with what I've been so lucky to be handed in life.
Q: Are you surprised at all by the help and support that you've received from the community?
A: Not at all. I live in an amazing town and we're doing the right thing.
Q: What about help from outside the community? You have a few friends from out of town playing at the concert with you.
A: They're just friends of mine and I talked to them about what I was doing and they wanted to lend a hand, too. We've got two guys from Three Doors Down coming, the singer from Seether, a band that I signed called Lo Pro and a gentleman by the name of Brendan Kelly will be opening.
Q: What should people expect to hear at the show?
A: It will be an eclectic mix of everything. I'll be playing some Staind songs, some solo songs, I'll be playing songs that were written and recorded but never made it to the record, I'll be playing covers. You never know what I'll play. I don't even know what I'm going to play.
Q: Are you hoping to see and Worthington families at the show?
A: I know they'll be there
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Gibson.com and Aaron give us a personal tour of his guitar collection.
Click here for Masslive's photo coverage from the benefit show. They have reviews and articles from the show as well.
MyMassAppeal has video and photos from the show as well, including this short video clip Aaron gave at a radio station prior.
Here is part one of Aaron on WAAF's Hill-Man morning show, others are available too.
Click here to listen to Aaron on Studio Sessions promoting the benefit and performing "Country Boy".
Finally, continue to watch Aaron on Dream Season: Celebrity as only a few more episodes remain. and if you're in Iraq next month look out to see him (Thank our armed forces too) and enjoy an awesome show.
