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Beak Boater
07-21-2010, 07:37 AM
This is a MEGA HUGE event with four bands, Car 54, Sam Grow, Full Steam and No Green Jelly Beenz. Marcie, who manages and bar tends at Gilligan's, and her family have fallen on hard times. Marcie's daughter has been fighting brain trauma and the medical bills are piling up. We..., in Southern Maryland, like to take care of our own. So all four bands, Car 54, Sam Grow, Full Steam and No Green Jelly Beenz, have teamed up to put on one HELL of a Sunday Funday to raise money for Marcie and her family. For only a $5 cover, you get to see four southern marlyand bands each put on a set, and bring it together to rock out with each other! All proceeds will go directly to Marcie, so make your plans to come out now! The party starts at 2 pm! The schedule for the day follows:

2-3 Car 54
3:45-4:45 Sam Grow
5:15-6:15 Full Steam
7:00-8:00 No Green Jelly Beenz

In addition to all of this entertainment, there will be raffles, 50/50 drawings, and many other fun things and giveaways to help raise money for Marcie and her family.

Plan to come out, Southern Maryland! See you there!!!

Seltzer
07-22-2010, 03:01 PM
To steal a line from Randy's favorite artist Michael Jackson "Ill Be There"

Beak Boater
07-31-2010, 07:01 AM
This one's for Morgan
Sunday concert at Gilligan's will help 10-year-old girl
Friday, July 30, 2010
By SARA K. TAYLOR

Staff writer


Click here to enlarge this photo

Photos courtesy of VERONICA LANCASTER
Morgan May, 10, suffered a stroke in April. She continues to recover with rehabilitation exercises. A concert on Sunday at Gilligan's Pier in Newburg, which her mother, Marcie Brock, manages, will help the family with bills.

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Among the performers will be local musician Sam Grow.


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Full Steam, featuring members Frank Lancaster, left, Veronica Lancaster and Doug Hillgren will perform at the benefit concert.



It was just another Wednesday in April. Marcie Brock was finally back at work as the manager at Gilligan's Pier in Newburg following the offseason.

Her in-laws were watching her kids, Morgan, 10, and Owen, 3, at the Brocks' Charlotte Hall home until Brock's husband, Frank, could get home from work.

Yeah, something was "off" about Morgan (Brock's daughter from a previous relationship with Trent May) that day. Brock can say that now, hindsight being what it is.

Morgan and she had a huge blowup over homework — but that wasn't too unusual really. What kid wants to do homework? Morgan had been nursing a headache for a few days, staying home sick from White Marsh Elementary School where she was a fourth-grader. She also had been acting "silly," Brock said.

She might have had a headache, but she wasn't running a fever. Maybe it was an ear infection? Only a week before, Owen had been getting over a bout with strep throat, so maybe his sister would come down with it, too. Morgan and Owen were all but attached at the hip anyway.

Brock and her daughter spent Morgan's sick days lying around the house. They ate lunch and watched television; the girl tried to shake her headache but didn't complain too much. So when Brock left for her shift at Gilligan's, she left her in-laws, Lee and Bonnie, in charge. Morgan had begun getting clumsy, not talking — not even after Lee mock-threatened to take her to the hospital to figure out why she was acting out of character. Brock chalked it up to Morgan being "moody." Probably it was just the headache or maybe the onset of preteen mood swings.

Brock had only been at work for a couple of hours when she got the call from St. Mary's Hospital Express Care. Morgan had been brought in. Brock was stunned and rushed to be by her daughter's side.

When she got there, Brock said Morgan wasn't speaking; she couldn't even give a thumbs-up for "yes" or down for "no," and there didn't seem to be anything going on behind her eyes.

"Just empty," Brock remembered. "She was looking at me, but right through me."

After a CT scan showed nothing abnormal but still no improvement in her condition, Morgan was transferred to Georgetown University Hospital where teams of doctors swarmed around her, testing her for anything, everything.

Early Friday morning Brock was told that her daughter, her 10-year-old, had suffered a major stroke. It probably started on Monday. Brock was shattered.

"I should've known. … All the signs were there," she said teary-eyed, recalling those early days. "It was a living nightmare."

But who thinks a little kid would have a stroke? A doctor told the shocked family that in her more than 20 years of practicing medicine, she only heard of one other person as young as Morgan having a serious stroke. It just wasn't something that happened often. The doctors said they believe Morgan somehow damaged her carotid artery, maybe while jumping on a trampoline or something. But Brock isn't completely sold on that idea.

Throngs of friends and family were in and out of Morgan's hospital room, offering support and prayers, while the girl lay in bed recovering, sleeping.

Brock continued to cry and express her concern to friends about her daughter's condition. Then, in a room full of people, a little voice piped up aimed at Brock, "You just need to relax."

Morgan was awake and she was talking. Because of her age, her recovery was fast. She went right from the intensive care unit at Georgetown to National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., to begin two weeks of intense occupational, physical and speech rehab. Without the help of her mother, she was soon brushing her hair, brushing her teeth, walking up and down stairs. NRH lined up homeschooling so that Morgan would stay on track and be able to start school as a fifth-grader.

Along the way, Morgan urged her mother to stop blaming herself.

"Mom, it's not your fault," Brock remembered Morgan saying.

Within two years, doctors expect Morgan to be at about 80 percent. The activities she had problems with before could be more intense, or she could just breeze through them and vice versa.

"There is so much we don't know about the brain," Brock said. "I've learned more about the brain than I thought I would ever know."

While now on a break from rehab, Morgan still has exercises she completes every day at home to keep on top of her recovery. She'll start sessions with a psychologist soon as another form of rehab. During their time at the hospital and rehab center, Morgan and her family witnessed people worse off than she was; they saw volunteers devote hours to helping make the day brighter, either with music, arts and crafts, or in some other way. It left a lasting impression on the family, with Brock vowing that they would likely be among the volunteers when the girl is strong enough.

More things are changing for the family. Brock, who spent a good deal of her time running Gilligan's and helping make it into a destination for diners and music fans, is searching for a job that will allow more time for her to spend with her family.

The relationships Brock has built with band members from local groups prompted Veronica Lancaster, a singer and guitarist for Full Steam and Brock's friend, to take the lead when other musicians started tossing around the idea of a benefit concert to help Morgan's family with bills.

"We're all in different bands," Lancaster said. "But we all get along. … It's a small community, kind of cool."

In the last few months, the musicians' talk turned to Brock's situation.

"Everyone was like, ‘Have you heard?' Then someone said we should have this benefit and it was, ‘Count us in,'" Lancaster said. "It wasn't hard at all, and it's because of who Marcie is. … She's doesn't just sign the checks or book the bands. She's our friend."

On Sunday, Car 54, Sam Grow, Full Steam and No Green JellyBeenz will perform at Gilligan's. So far, word has spread through Facebook and other online networking sites with about 400 people confirming that they'll show up during the day with musicians starting at 2 p.m. and wrapping up around 8 p.m. There also will be raffles, including one for a donated Paul Reed Smith 25th anniversary guitar.

Morgan even has mentioned maybe taking the stage with Lancaster during a Full Steam number. Meanwhile, she continues to recover with the help of her family, including her father, Brock's parents, Ray and Mary Moore who live in Fort Worth, Texas, and grandmother, Suzanne May, a Charles County-based teacher.

When Morgan gets down, Brock tries to rally.

"I'm the kind of person that always gives 100 percent," Brock said. "And I expect my kids to be the same way." And when Morgan's recovery isn't exactly where she wants it to be, Brock tries to look on the bright side.

"The guilt is overwhelming," Brock admitted, still stung that she didn't see the signs of the stroke. "There is a lot of should I, could I, would I. But then I think, ‘I have her.' I try not to look back; we're looking forward."

staylor@somdnews.com


If you go
The benefit concert for Morgan May will be Aug. 1 at Gilligan's Pier, 11535 Popes Creek Road, Newburg. Car 54 will perform from 2-3 p.m.; Sam Grow goes on 3:45-4:45 p.m.; Full Steam takes the stage 5:15-6:15 p.m.; and No Green JellyBeenz plays from 7-8 p.m.

There will also be raffles during the day.

For more information, call 301-643-4045 or e-mail veronica@fullsteamband.com.