By Jay Scott Kanes

BLOOMFIELD, PEI, Canada – Members of the Helping Hands Band keep the Christmas spirit strong all year. No musical group has a more appropriate name or better intentions.

Anyone in Prince Edward Island needing help to fund a good cause can get an entire band of helping hands. For 10 years, this six-member group has played country, gospel, rock ‘n’ roll or “whatever you want to hear”, always to raise money for charities. The results exceed Cdn $1.1 million and help thousands of people.

Joy from music and good deeds inspires the band and its followers. “We have no intention of stopping until we can’t do it anymore,” said singer-guitarist Johnny Fitzgerald, a retired fisherman. “As long as the good Lord gives me the strength, I’ll perform.”

Based in western PEI, the Helping Hands Band dedicates every show to helping folks in need. “We enjoy reaching out to people,” Johnny said. “It’s great to see smiles on faces. Anyone with a sickness shouldn’t need to worry about money, but many people are like me. They have an old-age pension coming in, and that’s it.”

These musicians are snappy dressers, often in jackets and matching shirts (with musical notes at the collars). “We like to dress up,” said bass player Orville Rogers, a pharmacy worker and school-bus driver. “We enjoy walking on the street and hearing people say, ‘There’s the Helping Hands Band’.”

Often four or more times a week, the band stars at benefit concerts for folks hit by illness or misfortune, for special causes like the Cancer Society, West Prince Angel Network or Christmas Daddies and at hospitals, churches or seniors homes. From 2000 to 2003, the group starred on community TV.

These musicians may miss family birthday or anniversary parties. “We need to thank our families,” Orville said. “For example, my son plays hockey. A lot of times, he asked me to go to games, but I needed to play at benefits. He understood and still does.”

Orville’s wife of 35 years, Mary Lou Rogers, helps to manage the band. “They do it for the love of music,” she said. “I love music too, but don’t play it. Rarely do the musicians’ wives miss a show. We’re proud of what they do.”

Fortnightly, the band hosts a jamboree at St Anthony’s Parish Hall in Bloomfield. There, fans set their own admission fee. “If you have $10 to contribute, fine,” Johnny said. “Fifty cents is fine too. If we charged $6, quite a few poor people might not afford to attend. But they’ll have 50 cents or a dollar. They can chuck that in and come to the show. Many of them are the most generous folks I’ve ever seen.”

The band also stars retired car-dealer Edgar Wedlock (guitar), former farmer Alton Silliker (fiddle, dobro, guitar, mandolin), ex-teacher Lorne Howard (guitar, keyboards) and highways employee Russell (Junior) Boylan (mandolin, guitar).

They take turns to sing. “Before joining the band, I’d retired and was becoming a couch potato,” Edgar said. “Music revived me.”

Not necessarily Canada’s slickest or most energetic musicians, the Helping Hands “boys” vary in age from the late 50s to 70s. “We’re just a bunch of guys who never practice,” Johnny confessed. “We get onstage and let it rip. If we make mistakes, fine. That’s the way we go.

“We’ve been together all these years without an argument. We get along like family, almost brothers, and our wives support us 100 per cent. I couldn’t wish to be in a better group of people.”

Two past-members left the band. Allison Silliker died in 2007. Tony Costante moved to Ontario.

The Helping Hands Band has released two CDs: Getting Together (mostly country, 2005) and If That Isn’t Love (gospel, 2006). Sales pay for musical gear and more donations.

Onstage, the band jokes a lot. “We couldn’t get along without a sense of humor,” Johnny said. “We’ve got to be having fun.”

They may pretend to bicker. “The stories I tell are true,” Russell insists. “Johnny, what you tell is fibs.”

A natural showman, Johnny likes to talk, sing or step-dance. Then he’ll invite audience members to “join the band” for a song or two. Often, they do – maybe an aging accordion player, a young singer-guitarist or a fiddling tourist.

If the sound system falters, Johnny jests: “Turn me down. I’m squealing.”

The band members never preach. They urge audiences only to enjoy the music and support worthy causes. “This isn’t about religion – it’s about doing good things,” Orville said. “Of course, we love going to churches and doing gospel music, but it could be any church. If we’re asked, we’ll go.”

Sometimes the band wins awards. A regional TV station once named the Helping Hands Band as Maritimers of the Week. In 2006, the community of O’Leary gave the band a Good Neighbor Award. This year, the members collected a provincial prize for “assisting the less fortunate”.

Often the band gets “really nice thank-you notes”, said Mary Lou. “To them, that makes it worthwhile too.”

But why are there no women in the band? “I’m not sure,” Orville said. “It just turned out that way.”

Instinctively, these musicians know that blending music and humor can cure a lot. They place everyone else’s interests ahead of their own. For that, audiences love them.


Russell Boylan 'tells true stories'.


Need a hand? Call the band.

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