Montrose Church:Local Teen, Church Partner to Host Benefit Concert

On March 30 at 7:30 p.m., La Cañadan Heather D’Onofrio and Montrose Church will be hosting “Concert for the Cure,” a benefit concert to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). The suggested minimum donation is $10. The concert will be featuring local musicians Aisea Taimani, Eric McClenahan and Johnny May. One hundred percent of the proceeds will go to fund cancer research and help patients pay for treatments and doctor visits.

Those who know D’Onofrio would tell you that she’s an individual who is out to save the world, but who never really knew how to go about doing it. As a former supervisor at Starbucks in La Cañada, she met a customer who gave her the opportunity to fulfill her lifelong goal of running a marathon. This customer put her in contact with Team in Training, an organization that has thus far raised over $695 million to aid LLS in its fight against leukemia, Hodgkin’s Disease, lymphoma and myeloma.

Runners with Team in Training are responsible for raising a minimum of $2,400 in order to participate in the Rock-and-Roll Marathon in San Diego. To help raise the money, D’Onofrio came up with the idea of a benefit concert. She got permission to host the event at Montrose Church, where she attends. She also enlisted the help of friends Taimani, McClenahan and May, three local musicians whose styles vary from acoustic pop to rock to island folk.

Taimani has played at venues like the Viper Room, the Troubadour and Plush Café, with Fullerton artist Tyrone Wells. At the March 30 concert, he will be playing with his band and will collide a few different styles from rock, reggae, soul and island folk.

McClenahan has been writing songs for most of his life and has opened for artists such as The Verve Pipe, Tyrone Wells and Andrea Hamilton. He is the youth pastor at Montrose Church and regularly leads worship for the high school group.

May, who began writing and performing music while attending college, has also performed at the Troubadour. He is also the local Young Life area director, and mentors many high school kids in the Foothill area.

Montrose Church is located at 2409 Florencita, at the intersection of Florencita and Orangedale.

For more information about the concert and the musicians, please visit D’Onofrio’s website at www.active.com/donate/tntgla/HardcoreHeather.