Community pours out support for David Gabriel
Community members raised more than $11,000 at a benefit to help with the medical expenses of local performer David Gabriel.
Gabriel had emergency, life-saving surgery in October and was hospitalized at Ashland Community Hospital for two weeks. Expenses were $57,000 and, even with insurance, Gabriel still owed more than $24,000.
The "David Gabriel Benefit Variety Show" on April 20 at the Ashland Historic Armory, helped put a dent in that bill.
"There was an amazing outpouring of love from the community for David Gabriel," said Joy and Larry Marshall of Marshall Fundraising Management, an Ashland-based fundraising and events management firm that produced the event pro bono.
The armory donated the venue and participants donated their performing talents, including The Hamazons, Laura Derocher (Gabriel's life-partner), Paula Flowers, Renee Hewitt, Heather Hutton, Karen Lovely, Richard Williams, Gayle Wilson and Camelot Theatre's Livia Genise and radio talk-show host Jeff Golden as co-emcees.
Gabriel himself performed with his Beatles cover band, The Nowhere Men, also featuring Dave Marston, Brent Norton and Joe Cahoon.
Individual donations and sponsorship dollars combined to raise $12,963.43, which, after expenses, netted $11,667.32 for Gabriel's medical bills, the Marshalls said. Ashland Community Hospital has agreed to accept this amount as payment in full toward Gabriel's hospital balance. Subsequent donations will be used to offset his doctor's bills.
Gabriel offered his thanks to everyone who donated their time, talent, money and other gifts.
"My heart is full with gratitude and appreciation," Gabriel said. "Your combined gift relieves a huge burden. The world feels like a safe place to be. It makes me want to give more of myself""my time, energy and resources""whenever I can."
The issue of universal health care also surfaced during the show.
"While it feels great to come together to support one of our own, we should also remember that there's no other affluent country in the world where friends would have to do this on their own," co-emcee Jeff Golden said in his opening statement. "The system more or less told David Gabriel: 'Here's a huge bill for the procedure to save your life and we don't care that it's much more money than you have. Life's tough — deal with it.'"
Gabriel only had "catastrophic" medical insurance, which paid a portion of the debt.
"We all deserve to have our healthcare needs met," Gabriel said. "Let's continue to envision and work toward a U.S. health care system that truly works for everyone."
Gabriel has appeared at The Camelot Theatre many times, most recently as the Baker in "Into the Woods" and the fiery John Adams in "1776." With Laura Derocher and friends, David conceived, co-wrote, co-produced and co-performed an original musical variety show, "Divine Lunacy." He recently was featured in a winter tour with Rogue Opera's "Opera in the Schools" program. David will be appearing at the Camelot Theatre May 29 through June 15 in "Spotlight on Tony Bennett" and all donations from that program shall also be included in the fundraising campaign.
Until all bills are paid in full, donations will continue to be accepted at Umpqua Bank, 250 N. Pioneer Street, Ashland, OR 97520. Donors, please make checks payable to: David King (David's legal name) Medical Expense Fund.
