What began as a hobby for an Otterbein professor is now a way to bring awareness to charities that support medical research. Jeffrey Vasiloff, adviser of Otterbein’s Pre-Health Honor Society and assistant professor of anatomy and physiology, is currently working to raise awareness for these charities by organizing a concert that will be at Otterbein.
The charity focus for the band’s current album and the theme for their upcoming concert is leukemia and the research program at the James Cancer Hospital. The album is dedicated to his friend, Dimitri Teague, who suffers from chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a slow growing cancer that attacks white blood cells in the bone marrow. The main purpose for the concert is to raise awareness of the need for bone marrow transplant donors.
Vasiloff founded his own band a little over a year ago. Vasiloff has been a songwriter for more than 30 years and also enjoys writing poetry. Vasiloff writes all of the songs for his band Red Blue Interlaced. He is a singer and guitar player for the band. The other band members are professional musicians in the Columbus area.
Vasiloff does not make any money from his music. In fact, he loses thousands of dollars. Money, however, is not the issue for Vasiloff. He said that the purpose of making music is to share with everyone through song and poetry an awareness of medical advancements made possible by charitable causes.
Vasiloff records his music at John Schwab Recording Studio. Prior to his latest album “Mourns the Innocent”, Vasiloff had been creating music for charity awareness. All of his songs and videos are available for free on YouTube and the band’s website, and can also be purchased on iTunes.
“I’m always going to have some charity focus,” Vasiloff said. “Even though it probably won’t bring in a lot of money for those charities, but it will raise awareness.”
Vasiloff has a son with special needs and an adopted daughter who had an intrauterine stroke. He sees the heroism in his and other special needs children. In honor of them, he made an album titled “Heroes”, which was a fundraiser for Special Olympians. The songs on the album are geared more toward children, but with Red Blue Interlaced, Vasiloff is able to share more serious songs.
When Red Blue Interlaced plays the concert, there will also be talks about the James Cancer Hospital and the cancer research being done there. Vasiloff’s children will be performing as well. His son will play the drums and his daughter will sing. They can also be heard on the album “Mourns the Innocent”.
Admission to the concert is free. The event is purely to raise awareness and have a good time, Vasiloff said. He hopes to raise awareness not only of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, but of Otterbein’s Pre-Health Honor Society.
The Pre-Health Honor Society is a country-wide group for anyone in the pre-medical field. It is not a well-known organization but Vasiloff can recall at least ten years of its presence at Otterbein. He became the adviser in 2013.
Kelsey Long, senior biochemistry and molecular biology and psychology double major, is the president of the Pre-Health Honor Society. Her job is to organize meetings,events and publicize the society by encouraging students to participate.
“I’m just hoping that a lot more people will know what the organization is and be able to apply next year,” Long said. “I’d like for the group to be more active with other events on campus, but it’s going to take a little while. We’re a small group so we need some more numbers first.”
Long will be speaking about the organization at the Red Blue Interlaced concert.
The concert will be held April 27 at 2 p.m. in Riley Auditorium.
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