Torch Club owner Marina Texeira and Cindy Love of Albie Aware

With October being National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, local organizations like Albie Aware Breast Cancer Foundation are gearing up for important events like the sixth annual Blues for Life concert at Torch Club on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012. This year’s show will feature a dozen top-notch performances from bands like Walking Spanish, Arden Park Roots, Mercy Me!, Keri Carr, KB & the Slingtones and many others. Cindy Love, executive director of Albie Aware, says this event is the organization’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

“We do about 17 events a year,” she said. “We’re very busy, but this one is one of the bigger ones. Events like this are our lifeblood, without donations, we can’t do the work we do.”

The foundation was created in memory of longtime Sacramento resident Albie Carson who succumbed to breast cancer in 2002. Her husband Doug Carson founded the organization to raise money to help others in the community who face their own battles with this disease.

“Albie didn’t get the proper follow up testing that she needed when she was done with her treatment and her cancer came back,” Love said. “Albie Aware is Doug’s passion to make sure that all women get tested properly. Our mission is to provide direct services to the community.”

So that means raising awareness, making screenings available, guiding through follow ups, providing free educational classes, etc. Albie Aware is very “hands on,” as Love puts it.

This year’s Blues for Life is $25 in advance (get tickets online at Eventbrite.com or at Torch Club) and $30 at the door. There will also be a raffle, silent auction and pasta cook off, all benefiting Albie Aware. There will be two stages, one outside the Torch Club on the corner of I and 15th streets, and one inside the club. The party goes from 1 to 9 p.m. and Love says they are hoping for a crowd of up to 1,500 people. Breast cancer is a serious issue, no doubt, but most of Albie Aware’s fundraising events aren’t too heavy, Love says. “It’s a festival vibe. We have a good reputation for having fun.” To learn more, visit http://albieaware.org/.

-Jonathan Carabba