On the occasion of what would have been Matthew Perry‘s 56th birthday, the late actor’s foundation has announced a new partnership with a Kentucky music festival.
The Matthew Perry Foundation is teaming with Hope in the Hills’ sixth annual Healing Appalachia to become the official sponsor of the festival’s Camp Grindstone. The partnership will see the Matthew Perry Foundation provide housing and amenities for more than 400 volunteers camping on-site, alongside 500 additional day volunteers drawn from recovery facilities across Appalachia.
Ashland, Kentucky hosts the fest from Sept. 19-20, and headliners include Tyler Childers and Chris Stapleton with additional performances from Molly Tuttle, Remi Wolf, Lukas Nelson, Blackberry Smoke, American Aquarium, the Infamous Stringdusters, Cole Chaney, Jesse Welles, Jonas Conner, Hill Country Devil, Corduroy Brown and the Montvales, Brad Goodall, Conrad Moore, Andy Frasco, Jeremy Short and more. The family-friendly event was founded by Childers and his team at WhizzbangBAM! and has since distributed more than $1 million to provide a spectrum of prevention, recovery and wellness aid across Appalachia and beyond.
As for the Matthew Perry Foundation and Hope in the Hills, the two organizations are said to be expanding the partnership beyond the fest to include collaborations on Save A Life Day on Sept. 25. Last year’s edition hosted more than 650 gatherings in 35 states and distributed more than 84,000 doses of naloxone.
“We believe magic blossoms when we are all welcomed at the table together to foster recovery as a community,: said Dave Lavender, board president of Hope in the Hills. “As Matthew Perry said, ‘Addiction is too powerful for anyone to defeat alone, but together, and one day at a time, we can beat it down.’ Which is why at Healing Appalachia we will come together and one day at a time work to be our best selves and help our brothers and sisters beat down addiction and celebrate recovery.”’
“The Matthew Perry Foundation exists to ensure that no one is denied care or healing because of stigma,” added MPF’s board president Doug Chapin and executive director Lisa Kasteler-Calio in a joint statement. “By supporting grassroots organizations like Healing Appalachia, we are standing with the recovery community, lifting up the work being done every day, and helping create a future where compassion leads the way.”