The 15th annual Jeffrey Steele & Friends fundraiser concert Monday at the Franklin Theatre raised $150,000 to support overlooked and at-risk youth in Middle Tennessee and beyond in the memory of Steele’s son, Alex, who passed away in 2007.
“We’ve been blown away with your generosity over the past 15 years,” the LeVasseur family said. “We have raised over $1.5 million to help nonprofits in our area who are championing our youth and the kids of our community and in other neighborhoods and communities across the country to share Alex’s love and light to those who need it most.”
With help from the Jeffrey Steele & Friends events, the Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund has been able to build partnerships and lend support to many youth-focused organizations, including the YMCA of Middle Tennessee and its Y-CAP programs, which help at-risk youth; The Beat of Life and its youth-based music programing; The Skate Park Project, a nonprofit led by Tony Hawk to support the building of skateparks across the country in the most vulnerable populations; and many more.
The LeVasseur family with their check for $100,000 from the Jeffrey Steele & Friends fundraiser concert.
Steele and his family made grants from the Alex LeVasseur Memorial Fund to three nonprofits during the evening festivities. Two included $100,000 checks to both The Skatepark Project and The Beat of Life, a Nashville-based nonprofit using the healing power of music to support the most vulnerable populations.
These grants will continue their work and partnerships with these organizations over the next five years.
The event also supported One Pedal At A Time, a nonprofit organization focused on suicide awareness and prevention.
The evening was hosted by Steele and his daughter, Casey LeVasseur, and included performances by Paul Overstreet, Lit, Ira Dean, Billy Dean, Darryl Worley, Silence X Noise, CJ Solar, Bridgette Tatum, Stephen Wilson Jr. and Jeffrey Steele.
