The date is set! Please join me on Saturday evening, October 4, 2008, for “I Remember”. The show I am planning is exciting and moving, with music that spans genres and years, including several songs from my recently released CD by the same name. I am honored and happy to announce that proceeds from this event with go to the Matthew Shepherd Foundation.

On October 6^th, 1998, Matthew was abducted, beaten, and tied to a fence on the outskirts of Laramie, WY. His parents, Dennis & Judy Shepherd created this foundation to, in their words, “support diversity programs in education and to help youth organizations establish environments where young people can feel safe and be themselves.”

THROUGH MATTHEW'S FAMILY'S EYES

Judy

"Matthew had an interest in politics and current news events. He was quite adept at understanding complex issues and was equally adept at expressing his opinions on these issues. He had such hopes for the future, his future. He was always anxious for the next step - the next stage of his life to begin. Every new step meant new challenges, new friends and new experiences. He knew that judging people before knowing them was the loss of an opportunity. He never understood why everyone didn’t think that way. Matthew felt there could be nothing better on this earth than another friend."

Dennis

"Matt’s gift was people. He loved being with people, helping people, and making others feel good. The hope of a better world, free of harassment and discrimination because a person was different, kept him motivated. All his life, he felt the stabs of discrimination. Because of that, he was sensitive to other people’s feelings. He was naive to the extent that, regardless of the wrongs people did to him, he still had faith that they would change and become "nice". Matt trusted people, perhaps too much. Violence was not a part of his life until his senior year in high school. He would walk into a fight and try to break it up. He was the perfect negotiator. He could get two people talking to each other again as no one else could."

"Matt loved people and he trusted them. He could never understand how one person could hurt another, physically or verbally. They would hurt him, and he would give them another chance. This quality of seeing only good gave him friends around the world. He didn’t see size, race, intelligence, sex, religion, or the hundred other things that people use to make choices about people. All he saw was the person. All he wanted was to make another person his friend. All he wanted was to make another person feel good. All he wanted was to be accepted as an equal."

Please join me on October 4^th, 2008 to celebrate his life, and his ever living spirit!