What is so wonderful about Worcester is its people, people who care about making the city a business and artistic hub and want to see it a vibrant and welcoming community booming with progress. What better way to lend your support than to enjoy some amazing music by some of the area’s best artists in one of the city’s most beautiful venues?

On July 29, Mechanic’s Hall will radiate with music from some of Worcester’s top talent and an event that benefits several organizations, including Bulldozer Health, Inc., a nonprofit health reform initiative. Its mission? To educate people about their health options and improve access to alternative health care.

“The Take Back your Health America project of our nonprofit has the goal of raising funds to help people pay for alternative health care, since our current system mainly pays for pills, tests and surgery. We network with alternative health providers. When patients are in need, they tell us what they need and why, and upon board decision, we pay the provider in our network on their behalf. The more money we raise, the more treatments we can provide,” said Wendy Edge, founder of Bulldozer Health, Inc.

“Sometimes a patient comes to us in great need. Chelsea Smith is one of those patients. She has been struggling with cancer her whole life – since she was 15 months old – and has already had a liver transplant. She is looking to try some alternative health methods to help her at this point. A large chunk of the proceeds from this concert will go to her. We also decided to give some of the money to other nonprofits in the area, like Abby’s House, The Worcester Youth Center, The Paxton Public Library and ALS Compassion. There is strength in numbers. We need to all work together.”

Edge started Bulldozer after becoming ill in 2011. Doctors told her that she would die, either from her disease or from the medication used to attempt treatment. She soon found herself on 16 pharmaceutical drugs, in a power wheelchair and unable to care for herself. After two years of taking many different prescriptions, there were only slight improvements. Deciding to take the wheel of her own health, she tried to wean herself off the drugs. Medicinal cannabis helped with the withdrawal process and replaced seven drugs in a month. Changing her diet, exercising, meditating and working with a chiropractor, along with a mentally positive attitude, improved her health more than the prescriptions pills did, but unfortunately, none of this was covered by insurance.

“I started Bulldozer Health because I want everyone to be in the driver’s seat of their own health, to understand that your body will heal itself under the right conditions and a good deal of health is up to one’s own lifestyle. I also wanted people to have access to alternative health care, healthy food and cannabis. I don’t want people to continue to be bulldozed by a system that mainly creates customers and relies on money and greed rather than improving the overall health of individuals,” Edge said.

Ari Charbonneau jumped on board to perform in last year’s benefit concert, and ARIBAND will take the stage to support Bulldozer again this year. A huge supporter of the initiative, Charbonneau has performed in several benefit concerts.

“I love her vibe and her talent and her passion,” Edge said. “And I could see that her ideas were in line with what I was trying to do. … She is a huge asset to our organization.”

And what inspires Charbonneau to sing and play the way she does? Many, many things.

“I suppose it is the ever magical muse, women’s rights, non-violence, human rights, evolution, intermingling and reverence of old souls and all living things, faith, energy, my own healing and purging of inner fears and dreams, the power of music, my memories, an eclectic collage, an ever-forming and passing of profit, the political and spiritual battlefield, love and the gurus of consciousness, ’60s anti-war love buzz, Woodstock, peace, sex, Prince, Whitney, Janis, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and all abuse victims, Tim Curry in drag and Freddie Mercury, HIV, disease, empathy, the power of faith and Mother Theresa, Han Solo, the list goes on…” Charbonneau said.

Music, though listened to mostly for enjoyment, can also be an incredible healer. Edge explained, “We are born into a rhythm, and we keep that throughout our lives … people connect with music … it is a mood-altering, non-addictive medicine.”

Alongside Charbonneau, Dale LePage, Nikki Luparelli, James Keyes, Ethereal Beings, Kika, Jorian Oxygen and the Worcester County Folk Orchestra (under the direction of Myra MacLeod) will perform. There will also be magicians and other fun acts walking around to make things even more festive. Alternative health providers, local artists, psychics, essential oil healers, massage therapists, health coaches and more will available to talk, and Dale LePage will emcee the event.

Some of the other local organizations that will benefit from this show are very close to Charbonneau’s heart. She said ALS Compassion helped a man she met, named John Demoga, who was suffering from the late stages of ALS.

“From the moment we met, he was unable to speak,” Charbonneau said. “Our friendship and communication were based upon other means, such as eye contact, a letter board, patience and understanding. What did I learn from John? I am still learning. He was a coach in life, and having met him changed my life. … There is not a day I don’t reflect on John’s spirit. ALS Compassion was the nonprofit that helped his family pay for all of the expensive equipment he needed to survive on a daily basis.”

The Paxton Library will also benefit from the show. While reading has become a digital trend and most people read from tablets, phones and computers, there is satisfaction in turning the pages of a book or seeing mountains of literature in one place. Anyone can pick up a book and learn something new, and libraries allow this at no cost at all.

Charbonneau said her grandmother, Stashia, now a vibrant 97-year-old, always read to her when she was a child.

“I believe it was that experience which paved the way to my literacy,” Charbonneau said. “It was her tone, her energy, the turning of each page. What mystery, what song, laughter and joy lie ahead? To do away with books as they are now strikes me as a severe injustice. I am an old-book junkie. The smell of an old book is the greatest high I have ever known. A book can hold energy, history and scrawls of unknown passengers. … To see funds being cut from art classes and teachers’ salaries, from our free education systems … to assume we are all equally privileged is to do our country a terrible injustice. Knowledge is free. It always has been.”

Abby’s House, a battered women’s shelter on High Street, also benefits from the concert, as does Worcester Youth Center, which provides a safe haven for the youth of the city at a very low cost and offers GED programs, basketball courts, a recording studio, art classes and more.

“There is so much talent waiting to be harnessed, embraced and encouraged. These future key holders are taught respect, for themselves and for others. Worcester Youth Center provides that for our children, where the drug companies overprescribe pain pills and hook our children on opiates, forcing them to turn to heroin on the streets because, ultimately, it is cheaper. That is why I decided to involve them, too,” Charbonneau said.

The Take Back Your Health America Benefit Concert will be held at 7 p.m. July 29. Tickets are $15 each or $20 for two. Tables of 10 are $90. Free for children younger than 6. To purchase tickets, visit mechanicshall.org. For more information, visit buldozerhealth.org/radical.

By Jennifer Russo