Upcoming fundraising concert for Henvey Inlet First Nation

By Rick Garrick

HENVEY INLET — Mark Beachey Entertainment and the Henvey Inlet First Nation Health Centre are planning to hold a fundraising concert and karaoke contest featuring One Ugly Cowboy at the Noelville Arena in Noelville on July 30.

“We’re raising money to actually create a music studio as well as a music program for the kids and youth here in Henvey Inlet First Nation community so they’ll have the opportunity to be able to do a lot of creative things,” says Mark Beachey, owner of Mark Beachey Entertainment and a Matachewan citizen who resides and works in Henvey Inlet. “We figure this would be an excellent way to provide the opportunity for the kids to express themselves and create opportunity for some as well — you never know who the next Shania Twain will be.”

Beachey says tickets and information about the fundraising concert and karaoke contest are available at his website: markbeachey.com, but they will also be live-streaming the event over the internet.

“We’re embracing the technology that is available, so we’re going to be live-streaming this event so people from all over the world will be watching,” Beachey says. “I’ve already had hits on my website from Ireland, England, and even in China.”

Beachey says they are also advertising the fundraising concert and karaoke contest on radio stations in Sudbury, North Bay, and Parry Sound.

“The karaoke begins at noon — we’re having a karaoke contest with a giveaway of $500,” Beachey says. “We’ve got people signing up already for that, so it’s going to be a fun-filled day. We also have vendors on site as well as providing food and everything.”

Beachey, who has been playing music for 48 years including at the Skydome Pow Wow, Ontario Place, and SunFest in London, says he will open the concert beginning at 6 p.m.

“As a Sixties Scoop survivor, if it wasn’t for music, I wouldn’t be here” Beachey says. “It has helped me heal.”

One Ugly Cowboy, a country/folk band who recently hit number one on June 12 on the Canadian Indie Country Countdown with their single, I Love Whatcha Do, is scheduled to begin performing at 7 p.m.

“They’re an amazing band and I was so grateful to be able to get them to play at this event,” Beachey says, noting that he hired and worked online with the drummer for One Ugly Cowboy while creating his new single, United We Stand, during the COVID-19 pandemic. “He did all the drumming on my new single and he started telling me about the One Ugly Cowboy band he was in. I asked him if they would be interested in doing a fundraiser for our event that we were thinking of doing and they all think it’s a fabulous idea to start something like this in a First Nation community, to have an actual professional recording studio as well as a music program for the kids.”

Louise Ashawasegai, a National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program (NNADAP) worker at Henvey Inlet and Beachey’s partner, says they have been working on the fundraising concert and karaoke contest for a few months.

“The theme for this year for the health centre was to work with families,” Ashawasegai says. “So what a better way [than] to incorporate music.”

Ashawasegai says the community is excited about the fundraising concert and karaoke contest.

“They all think it’s a good idea,” Ashawasegai says. “I even talked to different councillors … and they loved the idea.”

Ashawasegai says they rented the arena in Noelville, which is about a 25-minute drive from Henvey Inlet, because they didn’t have a facility for the fundraising concert and karaoke contest in the community.