Benefit to showcase rock legend

Sam Davis, left, and Leslie West at a Veterans Day Burned Vets Rally at the Statue of Liberty.

Legendary rock musician Leslie West will join students from the Paul Green School of Rock in South Hackensack at a concert to benefit a new camp for burn victims in Israel. The show is slated for 8 p.m. Jan. 24 at the Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood.

West, an Englewood resident and frontman of the band Mountain, said he was drawn to the project after seeing pictures of kids at a Pennsylvania burn camp supported by The Burn Advocates Network, a non-profit organization founded by his attorney, Sam Davis, of Davis, Saperstein & Salomon in Teaneck.

West said it was difficult to look at the images of the disfigured children, but ultimately they inspired him to use music as healing force. After learning that burn camps offer children with major burn scars the opportunity to use adaptive musical instruments, he persuaded Dean Guitars — which manufactures his signature guitar — to donate guitars and drums.

“The more time you spend with burn survivors, the more your perspective changes about the challenges they will go through for the rest of their lives,” said Davis. He and West staged a Veterans Day concert at the Statue of Liberty that benefited the 2009 Burn Camp Music Program and Burned Veterans Volunteer Project, which provides music and recreational programs and volunteers to 22 burn camps and centers throughout the United States.

The BergenPAC show is specifically for the new Israel Burn Camp for Children, the first specialized camp in Israel for survivors of catastrophic burns. Set to open March 31at a kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, this camp will offer the first drum circle for children whose hands are seriously injured from devastating burns.

The children will also be offered activities such as horseback riding, archery, ropes courses, a movement program, and arts and crafts. They will be run by physical rehabilitation specialists from Tel Aviv’s Schneider Children’s Medical Center, with volunteer support from Simcha Layeled, an Israeli non-profit that assists families with disabled and seriously ill children.

Davis noted that the camp was a longtime dream of his, realized through generous donations of many North Jersey residents. For the past five summers, he has raised funds to bring several Israeli and Arab children to Camp Susquehanna, a weekend burn camp in Pennsylvania.

At the concert, West and the School of Rock students will be playing numbers including West’s hit “Mississippi Queen,” the Don Nix song “Going Down,” and Cream songs such as “Crossroads.”

The School of Rock Bergen County Chapter has performed with other rock legends such as Paul Rogers, Grand Funk Railroad, Peter Frampton, and Keith Emerson. The students have played for terminally ill children at Hackensack University Medical Center and raised thousands of dollars for the American Cancer Society, The Make-a-Wish Foundation, and Songs of Love, as well as victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“Our kids are very honored to band together to once again help others in need,” said Andy Lucibello, School of Rock Bergen County Chapter director. “It is a paramount mission of our school that we teach young performers at an early age to use their talents to help others.”

Tickets are $30, $50, and $75 and are available at the BergenPAC box office at (201) 227-1030 or http://www.bergenpac.com. For more information about BAN, call Sam Davis at (201) 220-3908 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).