Derrick Junkeer, a popular Sri Lankan musician living in Australia organised a charity concert and lunch named - Warm Hearts, Deep love - in Wantirna, Australia to support the people affected by the flood and landslides of Sri Lanka recently. A collection of Rs. 1.2 million was donated to the Bishop of Ratnapura, to help the people in the most affected district during the recent floods in Sri Lanka and to the Lions Club of Hendala for their relief efforts.
The organisers received great support from a lineup of artistes who gave their services voluntarily on a Sunday afternoon.“All the Artistes gave freely of their gifted talents. Those who attended the concert also won gifts including air tickets to Sri Lanka and New Zealand and other gift vouchers at the raffle draw.
The tickets, the posters and the raffle tickets and all advertising artworks for social media were designed by Ishan Bahar in Sri Lanka, free-of-charge and printed by a local Sri Lankan printer Ajith Jayathileka of VicMark at no cost. This is the extent of the incredible network of cooperation Derrick Junkeer encountered in his tireless efforts to put on this Charity event.
Derrick also thanked all who came on-board for the sake of our unfortunate brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka. Among those who helped were Victor de Silva, Romaine Ferdinands of Jet Travel and Cruise and Alex Cooray from Alexander Media for air ticket to Sri Lanka and Sampath Siriwardene, General Manager of the Galadari for accommodation in Sri Lanka, Nari from Aussie Knox and Rowville for the air ticket to New Zealand, Brindley Perera from Just Energy for an air ticket to Sri Lanka, Warren J for the lighting Il Casolare for the pizza demonstration and for donating a “Dinner for 8’”at the restaurant, Mahendras Food Pty. Ltd. for the special “bites” and Isuru and Jude for their time and technical expertise.
As Kerrigan Labrooy who opened the concert said before his second song, “This really reminds us of why we are here today. We are here for a very worthy cause. If you think about it; we have a roof over our heads, we have food on our table, we have our family, we have a place to sleep...there are people in Sri Lanka who have no food, no roof, no water and that’s why we are here...”
Followed by Rob Foenander, and Terry McCloud, to break the great music came a presentation from the Chef of Il Casolare, the Italian restaurateur who gave us a demo of how he spins his Pizza Base - It is his restaurant that gifted a prize to the value for ‘Dinner for 8’. This was followed by Andrea Maar, who was excellent and a real showbiz personality, Jazz style.
Then came Jude J with his renditions of Englebert hits, followed by a potpourri of music from the Australian musicians: Marcia Rae with her Patsy Cline songs, two Elvis impersonators, Marcus Elvis and Peter Elvis of Greek lineage of the “King’s” songs, Joe Piastrino a Roy Orbison tribute entertainer and finally Derrick J closing with “My Way”.