Local musicians Donovan Farrell, Donald Quade, Wes Ryce, LaKeisha Smith, Justin Myles and Eric Scott came together to collaborate on a song written by Farrell called “True Heroes”.
Farrell was first inspired to write this song in October 2014 while travelling.
“I saw a little boy in a wheel chair and he had lost all his hair and everything and it really hit home,” said Farrell. “It just kinda hit me that day, seeing what he had to go through…how we take for granted how lucky we are sometimes.”
Farrell said that after he saw this little boy he wrote the song while travelling cross country for work.
When he returned home he gathered a few of his good friends from the Southern Maryland area to bring this song together.
In April 2014 Farrell, Quade, Ryce along with other local artists collaborated on the song “Southern Maryland Thang”. Farrell said that he loves collaborating with local artists because there is so much talent in the Southern Maryland area and wanted to bring together some of them to work on this new song.
“We wanted to do a big collaboration to raise money for local kids in Southern Maryland,” said Farrell. “The song is based off of seeing that little boy that had cancer but the words and the meaning to me is for all the little guys that are fighting a life threatening illness.”
One hundred percent of the profits from the purchase of “True Heroes” will go towards six local children who are fighting life threatening diseases.
Hudson Gatton is a three-year-old diagnosed with Lymphoblastic Leukemia and is to begin chemotherapy right away.
Maddie Grace Major is a nine-year-old battling leukemia for the sixth time.
T.J. Mauck is a two-year-old who was diagnosed with Embryonal Paratesticular Rahbdomyosarcoma in September 2014 and after 24 weeks of chemotherapy is in remission as of March 2015.
Brayden Richards is a five-year-old who has hypoplastic left heart syndrome and has already had three open heart surgeries and four cardiac catheterization surgeries.
Angelina O’Steen is a five-year-old who was born with Cystic Fibrosis.
Waylon Woodburn is a six-year-old with Cystic Fibrosis.
“Obviously we couldn’t get every kid around here that has something but these kids we all kind of knew from either musicians or friends of the family,” said Farrell. “That’s how those six came about.”
“True Heroes” which was released today, March 17, can be purchased through iTunes, Google Play, or Amazon MP3. Donations can also be made for the six children through SoMDHeroes.com.
During the month of April, Farrell said that he and the other artists are planning on putting together an event that will also help raise money for these children.
“It’s been such an amazing experience,” said Farrell. “It really was a life changing experience to get to spend time with those children and to see how strong they are…These kids are just so happy and full of joy and it’s just a beautiful thing to see…It truly is an inspiration to all of us and we were just hoping that we could produce the best song we could and try to raise some money for them.”
Song download links:
Donation link:
Video link:
