Benefit organizer Lance Hayes presents a check for $2,500 to local charity Adopt A Pet

There were ads everywhere. On the radio, numerous commercials on TV, videos on Myspace, and even flyers on the streets. The first annual “Warriors Never Die” James Forman benefit for Adopt-a-Pet shook our little town of Victoria, Texas like no one’s business. No one except Lance Hayes, that is. He’s the founder of the event and was a close friend of the late James Forman. For those of you who didn’t know him, James was an animal lover. At the time of his passing, he had two dogs, featured in the original poster of the event, and thirteen cats.

He also had a habit of taking in other needy animals such as turtles, ferrets and sugar gliders. I had the pleasure of doing a phone interview with Lance to get a little background information on the benefit. He began production in May of this year. It started with a Myspace page, then a bank account, a P.O. box, and finally a Paypal account. The idea behind the event was to create a positive way to bring together old friends while benefiting a cause that James would have supported.

Bands were brought together, as well as sponsors and volunteers, and item donations for a silent auction were gathered. No one could have organized a better gathering of kind hearted benefactors. Your own Busygamer had a booth set up with a donation bucket and half of the proceeds went towards the cause. Lance was seen around the event making sure everything was running smoothly while managing to enjoy himself with the rest of us at the BG table when time allowed. Crutchboy and I managed the swag for nine straight hours slinging t-shirts, jewelry, stickers, and free koozies to the donators, along with Gritskrieg, Game Over, and Timothy Danger. The silent auction featured local and out of state artists’ work. John Lara (Timothy Danger’s brother and the creator of the Monster Valley High webcomic featured on our site) donated several pieces that were very popular with the crowd. There were crafts and even an autographed poster from the Violent Femmes. All together the benefit managed to raise $2,500 for Adopt-a-Pet, which was presented as a GIANT check by Lance. Everyone
who participated or were meant to attend will be sent care packages, including the Violent Femmes for donating the awesome poster.

BusyGamer Crew & Supporters: Game Over, Crutchboy, Gritskrieg, Miss Genocide, Mrs. Rabke, Timmy Danger, Steph Perry

Lance thanks all of the contributors, bands, and everyone who showed up to support the event, and would like to especially thank Tim Lara of the Stout City Luchadores, Colin Rabke of AR-15 and Puppet of Primal Instinct Tattoos and Revolution Unleashed. They were “the backbone of the musical aspect of the benefit, and good friends with James Forman” as Lance stated and he’s very grateful they were able to help the cause. The benefit served its intended purpose; it brought together old friends, some new ones were made, and even a first date was had between a lovely new couple. All in all, it was a good night for everyone.

If you missed it, the second Warriors Never Die benefit will take place on Saturday, November 14th of 2009 and the proceeds will continue to go to pet related organizations. We here at Busygamer hope to appear at the future benefits, and are thankful to all that showed interest in our humble offerings.

Miss Genocide – signing off

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 4:38 am and is filed under Gamer News, Miss Genocide. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.