Cleveland Metal Holiday Food Drive Has Record Donations

WJCU 88.7 FM and Auburn Records hosted a food drive for the Cleveland Foodbank on Saturday, December 11 at the Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland, Ohio.

Fans attending the Iron Ingo Cleveland Indoor Air festival were encouraged to bring canned or non-perishable foods to the Beachland to help those in need this holiday season. A donation was made from the Cleveland metal community to the Cleveland Foodbank.

"We just received the final numbers," says festival organizer, Auburn Records president and WJCU "Metal On Metal" host Bill Peters. "The total donation was an amazing 1,256 pounds of food! That's more than triple the amount of the 340 pounds we collected last year.

"I challenged the Cleveland metal community to top last year's total and they more than responded by completely shattering our goal. We also raised $213 in cash donations with the help of the Cleveland Burlesque Company.

"Thank you to all of the fans for their unbelievable support to a great charity during these very difficult economic times."

"We were so thrilled by the outpouring of support from heavy metal fans for the Cleveland Foodbank and hunger relief efforts," says Kristin Warzocha, Vice President of External Affairs for the Foodbank. "These food contributions will provide more than 1,000 meals for local hunger programs and the families they serve."

Bands performing at the festival this year included BLACK DEATH, BREAKER, DESTRUCTOR, ETERNAL LEGACY, GROUND ZERO, H.A.T.E., LICK THE BLADE, SHOK PARIS, SOULLESS and VENOMIN JAMES, plus special guest appearances by MAIDEN VOYAGE (performing IRON MAIDEN's "The Number Of The Beast" album in its entirety) and THE CLEVELAND BURLESQUE COMPANY girls. Admission to the festival was free. All production and marketing costs were covered by Peters. The bands and Beachland donated their time and venue, respectively.

"If a radio station is judged by the character of its listeners, then WJCU must be blessed," says WJCU General Manager Mark Krieger. "The heartfelt response that metal music fans demonstrated during the Auburn Records/WJCU food drive proves that Northeast Ohioans are not only resilient and fun loving, but that they're generous and sensitive to the needs of their neighbors.

"WJCU is proud to have been part of this effort, but we give all the credit to Auburn Records, the bands and production crew who donated their time and talent, and especially the fans who came from across the region to make this drive a great success."

The festival was co-hosted by Germany's Iron Ingo Stührenberg and CELLBOUND vocalist Chris Emig.

Ingo is a writer for the popular German underground heavy metal webzine Metal Rules. He traveled to Cleveland from his home in Wiesmoor, Germany, at his own expense, for the second year in a row to be part of the event. His first visit to Cleveland was in 2009.

"My second wild and crazy trip to Cleveland got me even more connected to the city and the people", proudly states Ingo. "I enjoyed my visit a lot, especially seeing my closest friends Bill Peters and Dave Overkill from DESTRUCTOR who let me stay in his house again and made me feel at home.

"Cleveland is my second home now. I'm proud to say from now on I am a little part of Cleveland's metal history.

"Thanks to everyone who donated food or cash for the Foodbank. One thing is for sure, the Iron Ingo will return!"

"Sometimes people think there is nothing they can do to significantly help causes like this, especially when they feel they have little to contribute themselves, because the problems appear too big and overwhelming", adds Peters.

"It's hard to believe that right now in this country millions of people are struggling with hunger. You do not think of people going without food here but the problem is more widespread than most of us may realize. Shockingly 1 in 6 Americans or 49 million people are affected, including 17 million children. They are often hard-working adults, children and seniors who are forced to skip meals, sometimes for days, due to economic and employment misfortunes. The success of this food drive shows one person can make a significant difference in their local community.

"We did this event without any big money investors or corporate backers behind us. We're just average, everyday hard-working citizens like anyone else who care about our community.

"Heavy metal fans are the most generous in the world when it comes to supporting good causes. Everyone who attended the benefit and contributed was part of the solution. The whole is most definitely greater than the sum of its parts. We can take on and defeat these kinds of problems in society with the power of unity.

In the YouTube clip below, Iron Ingo comes on stage dressed in full Eddie Claus attire, designed by Gary and Alicia Ulmer, to throw out presets of CDs, DVDs and t-shirts to the crowd during MAIDEN VOYAGE's festival-closing version of "Iron Maiden".

Photo below by Lily Peters: Iron Ingo Stührenberg (left) and Bill Peters (right) at the Beachland Ballroom standing in front of a portion of the 1,256 pounds of food collected and donated by heavy metal fans for the Cleveland Foodbank.