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Magic for Miracles Fourth Annual Benefit Magic Show Contact: Ryan Parsons (610) 401-8500
Reading, PA Sunday October 4th, 2009
For the fourth year in a row the members of the Mingus Magic Club (International Brotherhood of Magicians Ring #57) will be presenting a magic show to benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), in honor of Shelli Lafferty. This year’s Magic for Miracles event will take place Sunday, October 4th, 2009, at M.L. Lausch Elementary School. The school is located at 200 Elm Street, Reading, PA, in the Exeter Township School District. The show will start at 2:00pm, and tickets are priced at $5.00 for children and adults. Six different acts will be featured, including magic, comedy and audience interaction. This year’s performers are Rich Gerber, The Amazing Magi Mike Reist, Andrew Imhoff, Ryan Parsons, Earl Hoshour, and Insanity Factor Tait and Michelle Harbaugh. Wayne Shifflet, owner of The Mingus Magic Shop in Reading, PA, will serve as Master of Ceremonies. Additional magicians will be performing close up magic in the audience before the show and during intermission. All of the performers are members of the Mingus Magic Club, which boasts members from Berks, Lancaster, Lehigh, Montgomery, and Chester counties. The show is expected to be one hour and forty five minutes long, and all of the money collected for the show will be donated directly to ALSF.
More about the Magic for Miracles program: In March 2005, after learning that one of their members, Dan Lafferty’s, child was battling cancer, the Mingus Magic Club decided to do something. They began planning a benefit magic show from which all proceeds would go to the Lafferty family to help with expenses while their daughter, Shelli was in treatment. Sadly, before the show could be held, Shelli had passed away at the age of 3, on Christmas Day 2005. To honor her short life, the Lafferty family requested that the show still be held, and that all proceeds go to ALSF in Shelli’s memory. They chose this foundation because it was started in 2000 by a young cancer patient named Alexandra “Alex” Scott, when she began holding front yard lemonade stands to raise money to find cures for children with cancer. Unfortunately, in 2004, Alex also passed away from her condition. Although she was only 8 when she died, Alex’s lemonade stands had already grown into a nationwide fundraising movement. To date the foundation has raised over $25 million for pediatric cancer research!
In April, 2006, two Magic for Miracles shows were held on the campus of Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA. After the success of the 2006 shows, club members agreed to hold an annual show to support ALSF in Shelli’s memory. In September, 2007, the second Magic for Miracles show was held at St. Pius High School, in Pottstown, PA. The Third annual Magic for Miracles event was held in October 2008 at M.L. Lausch Elementary school in the Exeter Township School District. The success of these events was helped by obtaining the web site (www.magicformiacles.com) where donations can be made online by anyone not able to make it to the show. To date the Magic for Miracles program has raised and donated over $10,000.00 for Alex’s Lemonade Stand, all in the memory of Shelli Lafferty.
Magic for Miracles Sunday October 4th, 2009, show starts at 2:00 pm. (Doors open at 1:00pm) Held at M.L. Lausch Elementary School, 200 Elm Street, Reading, PA (Exeter Township School District) The show is to honor the life of Shelli Lafferty and benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand Contact Ryan Parsons for more information at 610-401-8500, ryanparsons@comcast.net ,
Any coverage you can give this event would be greatly appreciated by everyone involved. We also feel media coverage will help us to raise even more money for this worthwhile cause. Thank you for your time.
Ryan Parsons, Director Magic for Miracles |
