Springsteen's sideman to headline major rock concert in Florida to benefit underserved Bicolanos

A Florida, USA-based humanitarian foundation is hosting a rock concert on Feb. 19 — to be headlined by Bruce Springsteen’s long-time sax player and sideman in the E Street Band — to benefit thousands of Filipinos in Bicol and neighboring regions who are in dire need of medical attention.

Clarence “Big Man” Clemons and his Temple of Soul Band will topbill the concert Rock’n the Hard Place on Feb. 19 at the Mizner Park Ampitheater on Plaza Real in Boca Raton, Florida.

Presented by Seaside Music and Technical Productions, the concert is organized by the Bicol Clinic Foundation headed by Dr. Mitchell Schuster, a Philippine-educated renowned American physician who established the foundation with his Bicolana wife, Tess Lacsa-Schuster, some five years ago.

This piece of good news was relayed to Funfare by my Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre. 

“Dr. Schuster studied medicine at the Far Eastern University in Manila in the ‘80s,” wrote Edmund. “He met his beautiful wife, the daughter of a fisherman, during his internship in a rural fishing village in Bulabog, Bicol. They have four children who are all directly involved in running the foundation.”

“This concert is our way of giving thanks to the people of South Florida for providing so much to Bicol,” Edmund quoted Dr. Schuster, a board certified family practitioner, as saying. “It is also a way to raise awareness and funds for the clinic’s latest initiatives to help needy Filipinos who have never received ‘first world’ health care.”

The foundation recently thanked one of its major donors, Fil-Am political leader and New York-based businesswoman Loida Nicolas Lewis, a native of Sorsogon, for her generous donation of $10,000 to the cause.

“With your help at the platinum level, this concert will happen and we will be able to reach thousands of people and create a real awareness for the needs of the Bicol Clinic Foundation,” wrote community outreach coordinator Laura Ratcliff in a letter to Lewis, CEO and chairman of TLC Beatrice International Holdings, Inc.

The Schuster family at dinner in Manila during a recent trip. Standing are Dr. Mitchell Schuster with daughter Jessica. Seated are daughters Jennifer and Jerrica, wife Tess Lacsa-Schuster, and son Josh.

“We are hoping to create a solid sense of partnership with the people of South Florida and throughout the nation so that Dr. Schuster’s dream of building a permanent clinic in the Bicol Region can be achieved within the next five years.”

Dr. Schuster’s son, Josh, who is CEO of the foundation, said charity work doesn’t have to be dull, that’s why the concert was organized.

“It’s a great opportunity for South Florida residents to participate and learn some great methods of giving back to the world,” said Josh Schuster, the Schuster couple’s son, adding that donations may also be made directly to the foundation at Bicolclinic.org.

According to Edmund, Clemons and the Temple of Soul will be joined on stage by the internationally-celebrated band Ambrosia, which will be playing its Billboard hits, among them You’re The Only Woman and How Much I Feel. An all-star band with world-renowned concert pianist and keyboardist Arthur P. Strout, and a very special line-up of surprise top-charted Billboard artists will also take center stage, said Josh.

Don’t Speak, a jazz-fusion trio of musicians, will open the concert, bringing to the crowd a unique and exciting blend of jazz, rock and Latin percussion.

Reported Edmund, “Clemons, who is a resident of Palm Beach County, Florida, and is Bruce Springsteen’s sax player for over four decades, immediately said yes when approached by Ray Durso of the Seaside Studios to headline the benefit concert.

“Durso said Bicol Clinic Foundation has a soft spot in Clemons’ heart, with the musician fully aware of the foundation’s mission to bring first-world medical practices to third-world countries like the Philippines. The foundation has been traveling to numerous regions throughout the world bringing medical relief to villages and rural areas that have no access to medical care.”

Bicol Clinic Foundation’s volunteer medical students and support staff treat a patient.

Many Filipinos may not be aware of it, but several foundations and medical groups all over the US, including Bicol Clinic Foundation, have been quietly extending a helping hand to the Philippines and other developing nations over the years without asking for anything in return.

Bicol Clinic Foundation, however, decided to go full blast with its latest humanitarian campaign because of the enormous amount it needs for the construction of a fully-operational medical clinic in the Bicol region.

“The poor in the Philippines have no options for health care,” declared Dr. Schuster. “The nation’s health care is run on a cash system, and the rate of death from diseases that we consider easily treatable is astronomically high, especially from tuberculosis.”

Dr. Schuster said the success of putting up a major clinic in Bicol can lead to the construction of more clinics in other regions in the Philippines. “That’s the long-term goal,” he said, adding that American medical volunteers, including specialists, can be invited to the clinics regularly to do volunteer work.

“Dr. Schuster is doing what he’s doing because even before he fell in love with his wife, Tess, he already has fallen in love with the Filipinos who are a hard working, peace loving and kind-hearted people,” said Laura Ratcliff, the foundation’s outreach coordinator. “It’s just sad that many of Filipinos have been deprived of basic necessities including health care.”

The foundation partnered with several medical schools across the United States to help train medical students and residents, bringing groups of doctors, nurses and other volunteers to areas that needed urgent medical care.

Aside from the Philippines, Bicol Clinic Foundation has held missions in Sri Lanka, Somalia, Nepal and Niger, as well as in Haiti following the devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake last year.

“Although admission to the Feb. 19 concert is free,” added Edmund, “people can make donations, buy T-shirts and other souvenirs and merchandise, while enjoying a great evening of music, food and drink. A portion of the concession proceeds will also benefit the foundation.”

(E-mail reactions at [email protected] or at [email protected])