Last-Minute Good Cause: Benefit for Giovanni Izaiah, Tonight at Fitzgerald’s

Ah, man. Just ran across this and felt compelled to post about it, even though it’s fairly last-minute…

There’s a benefit going on tonight (Thurs., March 8th) up at Fitzgerald’s for a little boy named Giovanni Izaiah Regalado, who was horrifically injured this past January when his family’s home exploded. Nobody seems sure why or how it happened, the house blew up with the three-year-old boy and several other family members inside, and Giovanni and his mother (who ran back into the burning building to save her son) were both burned on over 60% of their bodies.

The little guy survived, but he’s already gone through several operations, apparently, with more sure to come. And with anything like this, the costs of surgeries and hospital stays and everything else add up to an insane amount of money, so folks are stepping up to try to help Giovanni and his family out with the expenses.

Tonight a handful of good-hearted bands are donating their time & talent to the cause, namely {Acoustic Villains}, {Lost Angels}, {Downfall 2012}, and Ascension. I don’t know most of the bands involved, unfortunately, but I heard Downfall 2012 waaaaay back in the day and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked ’em — being involved in this, obviously, makes me like ’em even more.

I’ve got a two-year-old little boy of my own at home, and every time I look at Giovanni’s face on the flyer or the news story, I can’t help but see my own child; this brave little guy has gone through hell, plain and simple.

Help him out if you can, either by going to the show — tickets are $10, and all of the door and merch sales goes to help defray the medical bills — or by donating directly. According to ABC 13, there’s an account set up at Wells Fargo Bank in Giovanni’s name, so you can help that way, as well.