Jams For Jake Sunday Under Sunny Skies

A updated release from Ryan McKee and Pat Beckman on Sunday's Jams for Jake:

Jams for Jake, an all-day music festival/community gathering to honor the memory of Jake Czuczwa, is on for Sunday in Reading. It will be held at Symonds Way behind Burbank Ice Arena, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., to raise resources and awareness in the fight against the opioid epidemic. It will be free, family-friendly, and open to the public. The event had been scheduled for Oct. 29, but heavy rains forced it to be postponed.

Organizers also announced the bands that will be preforming including Cellar Fox, Beneath The Running Board, Salem & Ward, This Is Pointless, Asceral Invictus, In The Making, The Bonds, John Tuttle, Heather Hotham, Leah Vlahakis, Michael Wandel & Nate Fisher, MJ Tattar, Adam Fisher, Nick Sabbag, and Jocelyn Limmer. Also, there will be a tribute to Jake Czuczwa, featuring his original songs. The special guest speaker will be Woody Geissmann of Right Turn.

Jams for Jake will be a great day of fun, music, reflection, and community that Jake would have loved. Our hope is to use this event as a way to create something positive to honor Jake's life and to create a space for open and honest reflection on the effects of this crisis in our lives and our communities.

We want to bring this conversation into the light, breaking down the misconceptions and stigma around addiction that keeps people from getting the help they desperately need, and forces families and loved ones to suffer profound hardships and losses in silence.

Along with the music, the day will feature speakers reflecting on their own experience with substance abuse and recovery, as well as resources for those in our community who are still struggling and those who want to learn how they can help others. Hopefully through the love and power of art and music, we can use this event to come to terms with what's going on in our community, which has affected so many of us. We'd like to see people leave with a sense of hope -- that they can do something to help either themselves, someone else, or the community at large.

Photo courtesy Ryan McKee