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The main fundraising event originated as a golf tournament and ran for ten years until Mike and Troy attended a John Daly Celebrity Golf event in Mississippi and met Danny Seraphine (founding drummer Chicago), Tommy Thayer (KISS lead guitarist), Jack Blades (Nightranger front-man) and Rick Seratte (Foreigner/WhiteSnake). They performed a much smaller concert and were asked if they would do the same for the Greenville charity. When the musicians asked what AZCC’s mission was, it was stated that ‘It’s All About the Kids’ raising money for abused, neglected and at-risk children. It was unanimous. All of the guys said they would come perform a show in Greenville.
It was AZCC’s first shot at a show of this kind with big name musicians, and not feeling completely confident that all of them would actually show up, the event was not heavily marketed. It ended up being a very special, intimate event of about 300 people held under a tent in the parking lot of Arizona Steakhouse on Woodruff Rd. The concert was a huge hit. The musicians loved it and have been inviting their friends each year, making the AZCC band even bigger. And with a bigger band and more celebrities comes a bigger event. Now called Rock’n On The Runway, the celebrity concert has been held for the past seven years at the Greenville Downtown Airport Jet Center and has consistently brought together over 1,000 people each year to continue the mission of raising money for the kids. While we unfortunately had to cancel the event last year due to the pandemic, we took the time apart from our dear friends to reflect on how far we’ve come since that very first show in the Arizona Steakhouse parking lot.
There is still a golf tournament which remains sold-out year after year with a wait list. There are also many corporate and individual sponsors that make the event possible, as well as dozens of volunteers for both the concert and the golf tournament. Our incredible group of loyal donors, sponsors, musicians and volunteers continue to come back each year, which has tremendously helped us get the message out in a larger and more effective way, increasing the events’ stature in Greenville and surrounding areas.
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In Memory of Ben Wright
