Mission to ‘Change and Save Lives’ Front and Center at CITR XII

Posted in News on March 6, 2006

Country in the Rockies XII, the annual signature fund-raising event for the T.J. Martell Foundation's Nashville division brought music fans to Club Med in Crested Butte, Colo., for four days of mingling with artists and songwriters in one of the best winter sport settings in the Rocky Mountains. Proceeds from the event support innovative research at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories, part of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

CITR MC Tom Gross; BMI VP Writer/Publisher Relations Paul Corbin; Dr. Hal Moses, Director Emeritus of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center; Frances Preston, President, T.J. Martell Foundation; Raymond DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center; Peter Quinn, CEO/National Executive Director for T.J. Martell

Musical highlights of the week included concerts by Steve Cropper, Clint Black, Little Big Town, John Corbett, Blue County, Hanna-McEuen, and many of Nashville's hottest songwriters including Matraca Berg, Jeff Hanna, Jessi Alexander, Jon Randall, Tim Rushlow, Chuck Cannon, Doug Johnson, Wayne Kirkpatrick and Chas Sanford.

Front row: Gary Chapman, Jennifer Chapman, Equity Music Group President Mike Kraski, Equity Chief Creative Officer Tim Wipperman, Kimberly Roads (LBT), Clint Black, Frances Preston, Karen Fairchild (LBT), Jimi Westbrook (LBT); Back Row: BMI's Paul Corbin, and Phillip Sweet (LBT)

"Country in the Rockies is a magical event filled with music, fun, friendships and most importantly, the mission of raising vital funds to support cutting-edge research for leukemia, cancer and AIDS through the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center," stated Laura Heatherly, Executive Director of the T.J. Martell Foundation.

Clint Black

The inaugural "Music for Life Concert & Auction" held at the Crested Butte Center for the Arts raised $65,000. The event was spearheaded by a committee of local citizens and presented by Redden Group Realty of Crested Butte. Performers included Blue County, Suzy Boggus, Dean Dillon, Aaron Barker, Hanna-McEuen and Gary Morris.

Clint Black and Little Big Town

Since 1993, the Martell Foundation has enabled physicians and scientists of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at VICC to conduct cutting-edge research and quickly transition promising new findings from laboratory benches to patient bedsides. To date, the Nashville division has raised $14 million in support of the VICC's pilot projects. In turn, these contributions have been leveraged to obtain additional funding - totaling more than $100 million - from public and private sources to further advance ongoing efforts to alleviate suffering from cancer.

Jaime Hanna and Jonathan McEuen "busk" on the top of Mt. Crested Butte

The Frances Williams Preston Labs of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center are named in honor of former BMI President and CEO Frances Preston. Preston is the founder of Country in the Rockies and also serves as President of the Martell board and as a VICC board member.

SOURCENews TAGS Artists Matraca Berg Clint Black Chuck Cannon Steve Cropper Dean Dillon Hanna-McEuen Jeff Hanna Doug Johnson Wayne Kirkpatrick Little Big Town Frances Preston Jon Randall Tim Rushlow Chas Sanford