Deb Emerick Summer Celebration of Music

Photo by Russ Tindall, ProPhoto Image

This year’s Deb Emerick Summer Celebration of Music, honoring the memory of a beloved Fremont artist and musician, will again feature an impressive and diverse collection of Newaygo County talent.
The concert is scheduled for Tuesday evening, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. at the Dogwood Center for the Performing Arts.
Admission will be free, with donations going to the Newaygo County Compassion Home, a community-supported non-profit that provides free end-of-life care for local people.
An anonymous donor recently offered to match any donations that come in for the Compassion Home, up to $20,000.

Concert impresario Dean Morehouse said that donations toward the $20,000 match will be accepted before, during and for a few days after the show.
Like last year’s show, this year’s event will include the Braunschweiger Blues Band and the Outhouse Band.
Deb Emerick’s son Tracy Veenstra and her brother Dan Price will again perform as a guitar and vocal duet, and Deb’s husband, local Entertainment Utility Man Mat Emerick, will do some clowning or juggling or both.
Internationally acclaimed mandolin virtuoso Brian Oberlin of Rockford will play and sing, as will The Vandenberg Family of Grant and Mick Hanna of Fremont. Solo vocalist Jean Howarth of Croton and pianist Bernadine Johnson will perform, and Frank Sinatra devotees Miguel Escobedo and Luis Gomez of Hesperia will return for more crooning.

Newaygo County Compassion Home Executive Director Diane Rudholm said that, since welcoming the first guest to a small house in White Cloud in July of 2018, the non-profit Compassion Home has served 347 guests and their families. The home served 88 guests in White Cloud and then moved into its current building in March of 2021. The former dental office at 20 S. Stewart Ave., remodeled into a roomy, quiet and comfortable home, offers four guest rooms and a room that is used primarily for five-day respite care.
The free round-the-clock care is provided by dedicated paid staff members, with help from local volunteers.
“Without the staff,” Rudholm said, “we couldn’t do what we do. They’re in it for the right reasons. They have great hearts.”

Volunteers help with patient and family support, maintenance, special events, grant-writing, advisory committees and other work
Rudholm’s files are full of expressions of thanks from families whose loved ones have been guests of the home.
“The Newaygo County Compassion Home is the epitome of community caring for community,” said the wife of a recent guest. “I cannot imagine having gone through this experience without their support, wisdom and compassion.”

Nurse Ann Hindes and colleagues Amy Drilling and Brandee Chase saw the need for the Compassion Home and began working to see it become a reality. People like Dr. Douglas Johnson, the current president of the Compassion Home’s board, helped make it happen.
The Compassion Home does not replace hospice care. It works with several hospice care providers, and placement in the home is a collaboration between clients, hospice agencies and the Compassion Home.
More information about the Newaygo County Compassion Home is available online at newaygocountycompassionhome.org.

To take advantage of the $20,000 matching offer, supporters can donate directly to Newaygo County Compassion Home online or by check, including a note mentioning the Summer Celebration of Music. Donations to the home will also be accepted at the Aug. 13 event.
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Deb Emerick, whose art-filled life was cut short by a brain tumor last year, left behind a colorful collection of artwork, including a multitude of mosaic pieces displayed around the Fremont area. She taught art in the community for many years, injected artistry into her devoted church ministry, performed extensively as a musician and singer, and co-founded the Outhouse Band. She and her husband, Mat Emerick, performed together as The Patchwork Pear

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