Proceeds Will Benefit Lewis’ Non-Profit, It Takes A Community Foundation
and multi-platinum singer-songwriter Aaron Lewis will hold his 6th
Annual Aaron Lewis Invitational Charity Golf Tournament on August 5 at
Crumpin-Fox Golf Course in Bernardston, Massachusetts. The Aaron Lewis
and Friends Benefit Concert will take place the night before at Pines
Theater at Look Park in Northampton, Massachusetts featuring special
guests Mike Mushok (Staind, Saint Asonia) and Adam Gontier (Three Days
Grace, Saint Asonia) plus Ben Kitterman and Corey Taylor (Slipknot,
Stone Sour). All of the proceeds from both events will go to the
nonprofit organization founded by Lewis, It Takes A Community (ITAC).
“It Takes a Community began when my family joined with neighbors in
our small adopted home town to keep the doors of the community
elementary school open after state funding was eliminated due to
district consolation,” explains Aaron. “It started out as something very
personal and close-to-home, but is morphing into something bigger. If
we can make a difference in our little corner of Massachusetts, couldn’t
we give additional worthy organizations in our area a similar leg up?”
Since 2012, the golf tournament and benefit concert have raised over
$700,000 for ITAC. These annual events have allowed ITAC to help fund
vital programs, education and services to communities in need of support
including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Franklin County, Greenfield
Education Foundation, YMCA of Hampshire County’s Camp Norwich
Improvement Fund and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (T.A.P.S).
ITAC works with local leaders and organizations that have firsthand
knowledge of the needs in their area to support initiatives that improve
community life – particularly the lives of children and families.
About Aaron Lewis
Aaron Lewis, the self-proclaimed “Northern Redneck” and Staind front
man, achieved critical and commercial success with his latest album, SINNER, which earned him the #1 position on the Billboard
Top 200 Albums, Top Country Albums and Top Digital Albums Charts upon
release. The 12-track project, voted one of Whiskey Riff’s 40 Best
Country Albums of 2016, was recorded in 16 hours at Nashville’s
Blackbird Studios with producer Buddy Cannon (George Strait, Merle
Haggard, George Jones). Lewis penned eight of the songs, in addition to
covering Chris Stapleton’s “Whiskey and You” and The Dixie Chicks’
“Travelin’ Soldier.” Additionally, Lewis collaborates with Willie Nelson
on the album’s title track while Grammy Award-winning artists Alison
Krauss, Dan Tyminski and Vince Gill are also featured. SINNER was also one of Billboard’s
10 Best Country Albums of 2016, while The Boot raves, “Aaron Lewis
shows a surprising understanding and respect for country music with his
latest album, SINNER. Drawing from his childhood influences of listening to country music in his grandfather’s car, SINNER shows Aaron’s abilities as a singer, songwriter, musician and stylist. SINNER might just be the record that propels Aaron to a permanent place in country music.
About It Takes A Community
Noted musician Aaron Lewis founded It Takes A Community (ITAC) when
the State of Massachusetts eliminated funding for the R.H. Conwell
School in Worthington, MA. The school had served the children of the
hill towns in the area since the 1940s and was one of the only community
buildings in tiny Worthington. Lewis founded ITAC in July 2010 to save
the school. The support provided through ITAC provided the bulk of the
funding to reopen the public facility as a private community open to all
local students. The R.H. Conwell experience demonstrated that rural
communities can help themselves if residents work together and have
adequate resources. Under Lewis’s leadership, ITAC now provides funding
and guidance to a wide array of organizations that play a vital role in
connecting people within rural communities. ITAC was created to help
revive rural communities across New England by providing assistance to
strengthen, enrich and preserve these communities. We share our
expertise and provide financial assistance to empower citizens and
organizations to take charge of their own community’s future. ITAC works
to unite resources and ideas to help people and communities create a
better tomorrow.