We lost a friend, a husband, a brother, a son, a colleague, a creative genius, a warrior for love and a genuine human being. As much as it saddens us that Tim’s body is no longer on this earth we are content that he chose when to go…not the disease. He is at peace. Pain free. We love you Tim.

Models for Charity & Often Awesome The Series present The Often Awesome Benefit: A Year to Remember, March 17th, at Kings Barcade in Raleigh. Doors Open at 7:30 p.m. & the show starts at 8:00p.m. Cost $10. Door Proceeds will go to the The Often Awesome Org. Along with six prodigious music sets from a variety of local talent, we will be showcasing an episode from the award winning film retrospective by Often Awesome The Series.

ALL Ages Show!

www.modelsforcharityraleigh.com/

Often Awesome The Series is a web series about local musician Tim Lafollette and his wife Kaylan’s battle with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). It’s a story about love, friends, strength, and courage. It’s about building a community of friends and family, and creating and spreading awareness through benefit shows, web episodes, and encouraging everyday people to step up and be a part of the Often Awesome Army to help find a cure. OA the series has won Most Outstanding Documentary Web Series LA Web Fest 2010, & was an Official Selection at the 2010 Carrboro Film Festival, & Official Selection at the 2011 LA Web Festival.

Band Lineup for The Often Awesome Benefit: A Year to Remember includes:

Johnny Paul Jason, the songwriting team from Raleigh NC’s The Hanks (1987 – 2008). As with The Hanks some 24 years ago, this band continues what was then the pioneering alt.country / cowpunk sounds that predated the No Depression / Uncle Tupelo / Whiskeytown bandwagon by several years.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Johnny-Paul-Jason/114365968604440

“Reese McHenry has a voice that can rattle chandeliers at 50 paces. Not just with power but with the bluesy depth of Big Mama Thornton, where everything she sings sounds a little, well, dirty.” –Fuse “This is terrifically uninhibited garage rock with currents of blues and stoner metal bubbling beneath the surface.” -Razorcake
http://www.myspace.com/reesemchenry

The Breaks line up works as an uptight four piece: Brunson Hoole on drums, Tray Batson on bass, Steve Carr on guitar and John Ensslin singing. Influences include Tubeway Army, Mott the Hoople.
http://www.myspace.com/thebreaksnorthcarolina

SPIRALFIRE, Sinclair Vernon – the North Carolina native with a voice that can simultaneously melt your heart and peel paint off a jet engine – put together a band of raucous villains wielding rock and roll implements for the sole purpose of destroying pap and returning rock to its rightful, glorious, epic place in popular music.
www.reverbnation.com/spiralfire

Bustello’s sound has recently been described as a blend of Stiff Records power pop and ’60s garage, with ample shades of surf and rockabilly. Members include Ben Clarke, formerly of the highly influential “Metal Flake Mother;” bassist John Plymale, the Indy record producer of Superchunk, Dex Romweber Duo, and The Meat Puppets; & Drummer Jody Maxwell (along with Plymale) a founding member of NC’s “Sex Police” as well as Chapel Hill mainstay “Gumption.”
http://www.bustello.com/

Poster/graphic design by http://www.tadpoledesigns.com/

A BIG thankyou to Riley Miller of SPIRALFIRE for agreeing to be our Master of Ceremonies & Stage Manager.

This year, the festival has asked us to participate in a panel on the power and importance of documentary web series. This is an honor, and an incredible opportunity to spread Tim and Kaylan’s story, and to help us achieve Tim’s ultimate goal: creating awareness for ALS.

We are eternally grateful for the support we’ve received from the community. And we hope that you will help us continue to tell Tim and Kaylan’s story, and bring ALS out of the shadows and onto an international stage.

Very much appreciated,

Andy & Blake

Anyone that donate $20 or more will receive the first season of Often Awesome the series on DVD.

Family and friends are remembering a White Oak High School freshman and the remarkable impact she made on the entire community in the past year.

Sabrina Parker, 16, died on Tuesday surrounded by family and close friends at her home after a year-long battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS, commonly referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

Most people who develop ALS are between the ages of 40 and 70. Sabrina — who was diagnosed at 15 — was the youngest patient to be treated for the disease at Duke University Hospital.

Her grandfather Noland Parker said that Sabrina maintained a positive attitude and made the best of every moment.

“She enjoyed life the best she could, and we allowed her free reign on that … We didn’t try to hold her back because we were scared something might happen,” Noland said. “She liked her freedom and wanted to get up and go when she wanted to and not let machines or this disease hold her down.”

Noland and his wife Zelma became Sabrina’s legal guardians after her mother, Melissa Kay Parker, died from ALS at age 24. He said that they enjoyed watching Sabrina grow into a mature and respectful young woman.

“She was kind of quiet and she got along with everybody and she did everything that other kids were doing,” he said. “She played softball and liked to be around her friends, talking and texting on the phone; she liked listening to music.”

As her health worsened, Sabrina lost her ability to breathe, swallow and speak on her own, and her weight began to drop significantly. She had to eat through a feeding tube and had tracheotomy surgery in September to aid with her breathing and speech.

Because of her daily medications, breathing treatments and fatigue, she was unable to return back to school. However, it was her relatives and friends who stayed by her side along the way to keep her going.

On Oct. 16, Sabrina’s boyfriend Matthew Scozzari, 15, and 40 of her friends at White Oak High School surprised her with a special homecoming dance at a relative’s nearby barn. Matthew said that he was honored to spend every moment that he could with her.

“She made me want to be a better person… Just being with her those last few moments I wouldn’t change for the world,” he said.

Read the rest of the article here.