Area man’s benefit for Association for the Prevention of Family Violence to memorialize mother
By Kellen Olshefski
Editor
An area musician is teaming up with his family and friends to put on not only a memorial concert for his late mother, Sally J. Puleo, but to additionally follow in her footsteps, raising money for an organization that was near and dear to her heart; the Association for the Prevention of Family Violence of Walworth County.
The performance by John Ludy Puleo benefiting the association will be this tonight with the doors opening at 7:30 p.m. at Sperino’s Monte Carlo Room, 720 N. Wisconsin St., Elkhorn. The evenings event will also likely feature other fundraisers for the association including raffles as well as other opportunities to contribute.
Puleo said Heidi Lloyd, the executive director of the association, will also likely be on hand Friday night to share some information on the association with the public.
Tickets are $10 each and 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the association. Tickets can be purchased by contacting the association at (262) 723-4653.
Puleo said with his mother having passed in December of 2014 and her birthday being June 5, he couldn’t think of a better way to honor her life than hold a benefit for the Association for the Prevention of Family Violence of Walworth County, an association his mother and her church group at the United Church of Christ of Williams Bay have sponsored for many years.
“It was kind of my brain child, something I wanted to do to memorialize my mother who was very beloved and active in the community and to help a charity that was very near and dear to her heart,” he said.
Beginning at 8 p.m., Puleo said he will be kicking off a two-set performance, likely to last a “couple” of hours, featuring not only himself, a performer of Las Vegas style jazz music – similar to artists like Dean Martin, Michael Buble, Tom Jones and Frank Sinatra – but also feature performances with and by his sister, Kerri Hale, father, Peter, and his brother, Peter, Jr.
Puleo said the event is already nearly sold out, with only a handful of tickets left, though they will continue to keep selling and tickets will be available at the door on Friday night.
“We’re hoping for a big turnout,” he said, noting they’ll take more people even if the event sells out, but they might not be guaranteed a seat in the main room and it might be bar seating or standing room only.
“We will turn nobody away until they tell us we’ve reached capacity of the building.”
Puleo, who performs not only at private functions in the Lake Geneva area, but with the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra Swing Band and at Ditka’s Trackside in Arlington Heights, Ill., said music has been a large part of his upbringing in Gurnee, Ill., something that also played into his decision to memorialize his mother with a benefit concert.
“I remember music and instruments from the very earliest days,” he said. “Pretty much vocally is where we all excelled, we did play some instruments and things, but it was the singing, the choral groups and individually throughout the years.”
Puleo, who has sang duets with his mother in the past said, the key thing about Friday night however isn’t necessarily about his performance, but more importantly about bringing awareness to and raising money for the Association for the Prevention of Family Violence.
“It’s a two-fold and hopefully each year we can make it bigger,” he said.
For more information about John Ludy Puleo and audio and video samples, visit ludytunes.com. For more on the Association for the Prevention of Family Violence, visit apfvwalworth.com.
