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Event to benefit Lorraine's Soup Kitchen

By Natasha Clark

Assistant Managing Editor





CHICOPEE Even as the aftershocks of the hectic holiday season winds down, the stocking is not complete. Filling the shelves of local food pantries is a year-round effort and on Jan. 18 Lorriane's Soup Kitchen is getting a little help from singer Dave Mindell and the Moose Family Center.

Mindell, a 20-year Chicopee resident, is spearheading a benefit to help out the soup kitchen that serves up to 100 people per day.

"It's special to do something like this that is bigger than myself. I feel like I'm making maybe a bit of a difference singing at a fundraiser like this," Mindell said. "This, to me, is the best way I know to help people who are hungry to try to get the public's help and support."

Mindell gives most of the credit to the Moose Family Center for donating their family room for the evening. He hopes families will turn out to support the cause while enjoying some good music. He covers popular songs from the 50s. 60s and 70s -- a famed era for artists such as The Beatles and Elvis Presley, who Mindell said are his main influences.

"I do many, many different artists. From Bobby Darin to Neal Diamond to Frank Sinatra to The Monkees. I even do 'Over the Rainbow.' Just beautiful music and good ole' ballads," Mindell said.

That's an impressive set list for a man who's been doing this only for a couple of years. Three years ago he said he decided he wanted to sing at an amateur level.

"I had a friend [Scott Laflamme] who was in a rock band, Vicious Disorder. He is a voice teacher and he gave me some voice lessons for about a year," Mindell recalled. "I was already at an intermediate level. He took me and he helped me learn how to really sing and improve my voice and find the right tones for songs, and I steadily improved over the last three years. I've been out on my own for about two years."

The owner of Dave's Restroom Service, a cleaning business he's operated for the last seven years, Mindell said he loves to make people happy through music.

"My dream would be somehow to get more well-known and to be able to do this full-time. Along the way I would like to do more and more fundraisers because that's special and your helping people," he added.

While the current economy climate is putting a clamp on budgets of citizens and businesses, Lorraine Houle of Lorraine's Soup Kitchen said any help is greatly appreciated.

"Right now we can use peanut butter, macaroni and cheese and spaghetti. We can use just about anything," Houle said. "We're always in need of everything."

The Lorriane's Soup Kitchen benefit will take place Jan. 18, 6-9 p.m., at the Moose Family Center, 244 Fuller Road in Chicopee. Tickets are $5 plus one non-perishable food item per person. All proceeds go to the soup kitchen.