Just one of the family

Ed Morris, this year's NH5K2014 top individual fundraiser shared why he is supporting Calling All Crows:

I am honored to share our connection to Chad and Calling All Crows with you. It’s simple really: it’s all about family when it comes down to it.

My wife is obsessive about music. When she stumbled upon Dispatch, Chad, Pete Francis, Brad Corrigan and State Radio on Pandora, she had no idea of the connection. Hard to believe, but true. It wasn’t until Dispatch went on tour in 2012 that she realized they were all related. The icing on the cake is that my wife is a teacher and was so excited about Dispatch and their commitment to education. Our family had to be extremely patient because all we heard about/listened to was Dispatch, State Radio, Pete, Brad and Chad. In fact, whenever my wife quotes anything from any song, our children bow their heads and say “Chad Chapter 4 verse 7.”

We first met Chad at an organic farm service project. It was a glorious day! We met Bernard Kailey and his two children, who have since become part of our family! We also met Adam Gardner who turned us on to Reverb, which we’ve now been volunteering with for the past two years. But the day was ending, and Liz wanted me to ask Chad to come to Dallas for a living room concert. Even though Liz is the music freak, she is shy and never would have asked so I stepped up (not only for her because now I was hooked too!). I mentioned to Chad that I noticed that out of 23 cities,  Dallas wasn’t on his list—what could I do to make this happen? Chad took my card popped it in his mail carrier pants and left. When we saw him play the show that night in what looked to be the same pants, we thought, there’s no way that card will make it to his people. But two weeks later we received a call from Eva—fast forward and Chad played at our home last October 11.

Chad broke bread with us, raised a beer in celebration, took photos with anyone who requested them and dedicated two songs that night, one to our dog who just had surgery and the other to our very best friend, Jed Bernstein. Chad had met over 50 people that night but chose Jed. Why is this relevant? Because Jed was the most amazing friend, man, father, etc., and on January 1, 2014, he died of a massive heart attack in the arms of his girlfriend Rachel at the age of 42. We sorta felt that Chad must have seen something special in Jed. We raised over $500 for Calling All Crows that night and collected 20 or more coats for the local homeless. It was because of CAC that we put out the donation jar and asked for the coats.

Anyway, in February we traveled to Delray Beach for the Garlic Festival to see Dispatch, and celebrate and mourn Jed. Bernard from Montana, Rachel, Liz and I waited in line to talk to Chad. I let him know of our loss. Chad was genuinely moved and agreed to dedicate a song for Jed. We were so touched by this and the entire experience bonded us and helped us move on! Bernard even met the girl of his dreams as we were leaving the show.

In April, Liz, Bernard, his new love Jackie and I traveled to Elgin, Texas to support The Horse Boy Foundation and see Chad headline the show. We met Chad’s mom Sheila and spent the show chatting it up and singing with Chad. On June 1, 2014, I went into the ER with a stomach ache and ended up in a coma for nearly one month. While I was in the hospital, Rachel and Bernard talked about contacting Chad’s Calling All Crows reps to let them know that I was in critical condition and the next thing we know, he sends a beautiful video of him playing “Super Man” by Crash Test Dummies with his family singing in the background and his daughter dancing. I was not fully processing yet and didn’t get it, but my family sure did and now I do too! We don’t know why our connection to Chad and Calling All Crows developed into what feels like family to us but it has. Maybe it’s because of our story of loss, illness and survival or maybe it’s one of family, love of music, love of being inspired, love of teasing and laughter—Chad Stokes and CAC, you bring that to our world!

Thank you for encouraging your fans to action I am proud my team of my wife and I met our goal in fundraising. We will see you at Northampton for a great weekend.

If you want to support Ed in his fundraising efforts for our NH5K2014, visit his page.