Abreu Helps Friends: In Concert Today at Noon

Sharon Abreu accompanies The Parking Angels at a fundraiser at the Odd Fellows Hall Monday night.

Sharon Abreu says, “I hate foreclosures; they’re just wrong!” And so when she heard of the plight of Morgan Meadows, unable to make her house payment due to illness, she swung into action.

Abreu is a professional vocalist and the founder of an  arts-based environmental education group, Irthlingz.org. She and her partner, Mike Hurwicz, rounded up their friends to perform for a benefit on Monday evening, kind of a financial barn-raiser.

To an audience of about 50 islanders and guests, Antoinette Botsford, Orcas “Storybird,” told one of her stories, Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo and Nancy Wang of Eth-Noh-Tec performed their musical-dance story, “The Girl with the Long Black Hair,”  Bill Griswold and Sharon led a sing-along to Louis Armstrong’s classic, “What a Wonderful World,” Anita Holladay read “Rain” and other poems, and Morgan Meadows also read some of her poems, including “Belly, Belly, Belly” and “Help.” And the inimitable “Parking Angels,” joined by Sharon improvising on the violin, sang original and cover songs.

Other friends and neighbors brought refreshments and silent auction items ranging from artwork to professional services.

“We did it!” a jubilant Abreu said on Tuesday morning. Meadows will be able to make her mortgage payment, and she and her four children will stay in their Eastsound home.

Today Sharon will be  joined by Mike Hurwicz, Marianne Lewis, Grace McCune, Bill Griswold, and Ron Myers at Emmanuel Episcopal Church’s Brown Bag Concert at noon today.  and “Yes,” she says, “there will be opera!”

Admission is free, donations requested. Proceeds benefit the local music students’ scholarship fund to attend music camp.

Sharon suggests that concert-goers “bring a lunch if you like, stay and eat with us after the concert. Come early because the church does tend to fill up and we’ve had standing room only (and barely) in years past!”