PHS grad Van Herk to lend a hand on May 5

PLYMOUTH - Manager of Culver’s First Farmers Bank and Trust, the singer-songwriter, hopes to bring together local citizens, co-workers, friends and family members for an afternoon of mellow acoustic rhythms live at the Young Amphitheater in Plymouth.

On Saturday, May 5^th from 2-4 PM at the Young Amphitheater in Plymouth’s Centennial Park, 1997 Plymouth High School graduate Chad Van Herk has organized a fundraising concert.


   Chad has organized this performance to raise monies for the Ingram family whose youngest son, Trek Atlas has been diagnosed with Niemann Pick Type A, a rare, incurable genetic disease which claims the life of those who are so-diagnosed by the age of three.

Now friends of Chad and his wife Liz, the Ingrams, who are from Hawaii, had begun selling their personal belongings in order to finance a journey across various international boarders and, as the family’s favorite Chad Van Herk song goes, “…leave footprints all over the world” in a year-long sabbatical with their three sons (hence little Trek’s fitting name).  The Ingrams had gone so far as to purchase one-way tickets to Asia to begin their globe-trekking adventure just weeks before little Trek Atlas would be diagnosed with the disease.

As a result of the diagnosis, the Ingrams had multiple flights to visit specialists in Colorado, which rapidly depleted their savings and dashed their dreams of world travel.  Meanwhile, the Hard Rock Café in Maui began making plans to hold a private family benefit for the Ingrams.  That’s where Chad comes in.

“I received an email from the Hard Rock Café in Maui with several attachments and image files and, without reading it, I immediately thought it was junk mail,” Chad laughs.  “But they followed up with another email to convince me to come out for the benefit.  I was both moved and humbled by the invitation.  This will be, essentially, a farewell party for Trek as his health continues to decline.  We will be celebrating his short but hopefully not uneventful life.”

Chad and his wife Liz have been planning this fundraising concert with hopes of raising a sizable amount to deliver to the Ingrams at the Hard Rock Café event in Maui. “That’s what the concert is for.  All profits will go to the Ingram family in hopes that Trek Atlas Ingram can live a comfortable life for the short time he is with us, and even get a few stamps in his passport before he disembarks on his trip to the Great Beyond,” said, Chad Van Herk.

Tickets can be purchased directly from Chad at the Culver bank, or at his website www.chadvanherk.com, where donations can also be made.  You may also learn more about the Ingrams at www.babytrekatlast.com where donations can also be made.

Printed with permission of AM1050 WTCA