Editor, The Smithfield Times:

On Friday, July 19, around 6 p.m., I was driving down Main Street and passed a sizable crowd assembling at the Main Street Square Stage for the Downtown Smithfield Summer Concert Series. That evening’s performance was by The Hurrah Players, Virginia’s leading family theater company, who traveled here from Norfolk to present “4 B’Way,” a medley of Broadway, country and pop music.  

I wish I could have stayed, but I was on my way to Christ Episcopal Church’s “Open Mic Night,” which happens the third Friday of every month from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.  They had asked me to present a program on Reel Recovery, a nonprofit that takes men living with cancer on free fly-fishing retreats to the Rose River, a Virginia mountain stream.  

Reel Recovery has chapters in 21 states and three other countries and has provided this service to over 4,000-plus men over the past 20 years. They have two paid employees, an executive director and a program manager, and 400-plus volunteers who make it all work. The programs are funded entirely through donations.

Open Mic Night is a hoot! They have a “jam band” of music lovers who play songs from just about every genre you can think of.  After that, anyone can get up on stage to play music, sing songs, tell stories, read poetry, do standup comedy. Every gathering is a surprise and a joyous and fun time with other local residents.  

Pizza, non-alcoholic drinks, coffee and snacks are available. All donations go into the church’s outreach programs and are re-donated to local charities.

I went there just hoping to “get the word out” about Reel Recovery. I was blown away, and we are now able to fund about half the cost of putting a participant through the program from their generosity alone!

Please consider adding the next Open Mic Night to your list for Friday evening entertainment. You’ll have a blast!

 

Gary Parsons

Smithfield