Local bands reunite at fundraising event

May 5, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

POLAND

Shortly after longtime friends Dan Marshall and Bill Bodine retired from careers in education and the music business, respectively, they combined their talents to benefit youngsters with a variety of challenges.

The result was the 2009 founding of the Creative Bridge Coalition.

“I retired from Penn State University. We wanted to serve young children with special needs,” Marshall said during Sunday’s CBC musical fundraiser at the Fireplace Restaurant & Lounge, 2075 E. Western Reserve Road.

The three-hour gathering brought together some members of The Human Beingz, The Executioners, The Pied Pipers and The Holes in the Road, all local bands who were in their prime during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

At that time, Marshall and Bodine were in a rock ’n’ roll band called Brain Child. They also knew members of the four other bands, explained Bodine, of Los Angeles, a retired musician and composer.

The nonprofit Creative Bridge Coalition strives to provide and make more accessible innovative music-based programs to those with special needs, noted Linda Wellendorf, CBC’s communications director.

Numerous scientific studies show that music usually enhances children’s creative thinking, increases their success in academic areas and improves their overall cognitive development, the organization’s mission statement says.

Locally, the Rich Center for the Study and Treatment of Autism and the Fairhaven program have adopted the music-oriented projects, Wellendorf explained. All proceeds from Sunday’s fundraiser will go toward continuing and expanding such programs, she said, though she did not specify a financial goal.

For more information about CBC, visit its website, www.cbridgec.org.