Memorial Fund for Charlie

[BigJoe]

Many of you have posted, called, or e-mailed about a fund for Charlie's family. #Like many of us, he did not anticipate leaving when he did and his family could use whatever help can be provided. #

Gibson has set up a memorial fund and information is available on www.gibson.com . #If you go to that site there is a photo of Charlie. #Click on that photo and it will give a brief article about him. #At the bottom of the page there is information about how to donate.

We will have a benefit in the neara future. We have ideas in place and will get with the cafe in the next few days. We just need to ensure everything is in place before we make the announcement.

I wish to personally thank each of you for your words of encouragement, your e-mails, calls, and the many posts here. I have shared these with Susan and Anna and they are so grateful. I had the honor of speaking at Charlie's funeral service. It was one of the hardest things I've had to do, yet one of the most rewarding. He was my friend and I will miss him very much.

[Hans]

Joe, why not have a benefit at IBMA? Matter of fact, why not ask Jill, maybe they will do something.

[Scott Tichenor]

Joe and I just talked on the phone and I've asked him to encourage Gibson's corporate to see about getting the capability to take online donations towards this fund to help out Charlie's wife and daughter. If that happens I'll be sure to let you know. I've had quite a few emails from some of you asking if the Cafe would do something in regard to supporting them. I'll go ahead and share pretty much the response I've given everyone, and that's that the decisions in regard to some kind of fund should come from the family and/or Gibson and Charlie's closest immediate friends in Nashville in my opinion.

We (the Cafe) will certainly do whatever we can to support these efforts. Right now, as Joe has pointed out, a fund has been set up by Gibson corporate and we'll make sure we do what's possible on this end to make sure everyone knows about and is encouraged to provide their support. All of this has happened so fast that we need to remind ourselves that some of these things don't happen overnight.

On another note, Joe said Susan and Anna have had a chance to read some of the notes left on another thread about the guy we know as "Charlie", but to them was a father and husband. We see another side of him and the support we've shown and the stories we've shared mean a lot to them. If some of you are holding back your memories of him, there's no reason to do so.