Justin Veatch Fund Helps Young Musicians

By David Propper

Jeffrey Veatch knew he couldn’t let his late son’s music go to waste. There had to be a way to remember Justin and the music he played. With that goal in mind, the Justin Veatch Fund was created and has been helping teenagers with their musical aspirations since its official inception in February 2009.

After Justin’s untimely death in September 2008 from an accidental drug overdose, his family asked for donations to establish a fund in Justin’s memory rather than flowers and other sympathy gifts. What started out as a scholarship awarded to a senior at Yorktown High School has expanded into other areas to continuously reach young local musicians, including a two-day summer music workshop in August and a concert at Peekskill’s Paramount Center for the Arts in October.

“The way we try to look at it and I try to look at it is to make something good out of something bad,” Jeffrey said. “And what we’re trying to do is honor him and create these programs and do something in his name.”

From a young age, Justin showed his propensity and love for music. At four years old, he was playing the keyboard. By age six, he was receiving piano lessons, and by middle school he was playing the guitar.

“He could not stop. He could not put it down, and just did all this amazing stuff and learned this instrument,” Jeffrey said. “… We realized he had great talent.”

And while he grew in music, Justin originally resisted drug use. Jeffrey remembers going to a concert in which a 13-year-old Justin was playing with his band at the time called the Warsaw Pact. On both of his hands, Justin sported these big black Xs. When his father asked him about them, Justin responded by saying it was a way to say no to drugs.

But eventually, Justin started experimenting. First it was with recreational drugs like marijuana and then harder ones like heroin. While Jeffrey didn’t consider him an addict, it got to a point where his parents sent him to a top drug rehabilitation center in Pennsylvania. After a month he returned home, but his drug use didn’t completely stop.

On an early Monday morning in September, when Justin’s mother Marina tried to wake him for school, he didn’t respond. He was dead of a heroin overdose at the age of 17.

It’s a tragedy from which Jeffrey admits he and his family will probably never fully recover. He wonders how his son could die when he and his wife were no more than q0 feet away in the neighboring bedroom.

“It was a parent’s worst nightmare to think our son, who we thought would someday fill a stadium with fans, had died,” Jeffrey said.

The grief went beyond the Veatch family.

“It kind of struck the whole town really,” said Gary Cusano, who serves on the Justin Veatch Fund’s board of directors. “…These are involved parents, and these are parents that really care and supported his music.”

That support for Justin’s music continues. After he died, the family put out a CD featuring six of Justin’s original songs recorded by other musicians. Additionally, the Justin Veatch Fund organizes open mic nights, usually held at the Yorktown Cultural Center.

The upcoming music workshop, which is set for Aug. 13 and 14, will features professional musicians like Daisy Jopling, Sloan Wainwright, Jon Gailmor, Rory Stuart, Mike Latini and Dan Coutant. Jeffrey said he wants the kids at the workshop to get the same experience he’d want for his late son.

Former Yankees baseball player Bernie Williams, who is now a Latin Grammy-nominated musician, will headline the October concert that the fund is co-sponsoring. Young musicians familiar to the fund will have a chance to be the opening act.

What might be the most difficult thing Jeffrey faces is when he does public speaking engagements called “A Message from Justin.” Going to schools in New Jersey and New York, Jeffrey spreads his son’s story in the hope it stops other teenagers from using drugs. Despite the difficulty Jeffrey faces when speaking about the topic, he knows it’s worth it if he can make a difference.

Justin’s family will always be left to wonder how far he could have taken his music had he lived, and Jeffrey laments that they’ll never know for sure. Still, Jeffrey said it’s comforting that Justin left his family some of the music he originated from his short life.

“As tragic as the story is and as much as I feel so badly about losing him, it’s nice that we have his music and it’s nice that we’re able to share it with other kids,” Jeffrey said. “They tell me, ‘We didn’t know Justin, but we knew his music.’”

For more information on the Justin Veatch Fund and its musical workshops in August, you can go to www.thejustinveatchfund.org.