Nick Fleming is thrilled his late brother, John Fleming (aka Johnny Skull), will be remembered through a community fund benefiting students of fine arts.
Just about two years have passed since members of Seal Skull Hammer took to the Nexus Stage at Salmon Arm’s First United Church to raise money for their beloved bandmate John, who had been battling a brain tumour.
The seven-hour Johnny Skull Variety Show benefit concert was a success, raising more than $10,000. Tragically, John lost his fight with cancer soon after, passing away on Jan. 2, 2020.
Nick said some of the money was used to help John when he was alive.
“We always felt the money was given to us in trust for John, so we used what we needed to use for him, and tried to cover as much of his expenses as we could with those funds, but there was a significant remainder,” said Nick, stressing his family believed the money should be used to give back to the community. A donation of $5,000 was made in John’s name to the Shuswap Hospital Foundation. This still left about $7,500.
Nick said over the last while he’d been trying to figure out how to create a scholarship fund in John’s name, but had no idea of how to go about it. And then he got in touch with the Shuswap Community Foundation. He learned the foundation could do exactly what he’d hoped.
“They said… all we need is $10,000 and we can have a perpetual fund for a scholarship, a bursary, whatever you want to do,” said Nick. “So we opted to try and raise a little more money so we could top off the $7,500 to $10,000 so it would be a perpetual paying scholarship at Salmon Arm Secondary for aspiring students in fine arts – which is kind of where John, his passion and love was always fine arts.”
Read more: Shuswap shows love for musician battling brain tumour
Read more: Seven-hour benefit planned for Salmon Arm musician battling brain tumour
While Nick was pursuing this, Darin Herting, Alton Gowen and James Clark were considering a return to the stage for one last concert, bringing a proper closure to Seal Skull Hammer that wasn’t possible during the pandemic. Marvelling at the timing, Nick and the band recognized a concert would be a perfect opportunity to raise the remaining funds for the creation of the Brother John Fleming Memorial Fund, run by the Shuswap Community Foundation.
“It was serendipitous as far as timing is concerned. Let’s do it and make it happen,” said Nick.
The Seal Skull Hammer Send Off show is scheduled to take place on Saturday, Nov. 26 at Song Sparrow Hall. The show will include the The Rogering Millers and special guests.
Nick is grateful to the band and to the Community Foundation for the work it does.
“The fact that they’re accessible to us as citizens of the Shuswap, you know – if I was trying to create a fund like this on my own, it would have never happened,” said Nick. “I probably would have donated the money and that would have been it, it would have been gone and it would have been a one-time thing.…
“The fact that through them we’re able to set up a scholarship that’s going to be perpetual; it blows my mind and it makes me so happy that this is where the money can go back to the community and his name will carry on with it.”
Tickets for the Seal Skull Hammer Send Off are available on eventbrite.ca. They’ll also be available at the door. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show gets underway at 7:30.
lachlan@saobserver.net
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