CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Good music, various local bands, and a great fundraising cause helped bring a crowd to the Double Door Inn on a Sunday afternoon.  The Spread Your Wings benefit concert raised money for Wind River Cancer Wellness Retreats and Programs, which helps patients and survivors find healing in a different way.  “This shows how music can really bring people together and do something good for the community,” said Bob Graham, who along with his wife Missi Ivie, organized the concert. One of the local bands that played was the Leadville Social Club, also fronted by Graham.

At first, one might think cancer patients attending this benefit concert don’t have a lot of reasons to jam with bands like Leadville, The Old Invention and Carolina Gator Gumbo.  But enjoying music is part of finding healing from such a scary disease.  “It's taken a long time but I've learned how to have peace,” said Annie Hartline, who is currently fighting cancer.  “And let things go that don't matter, and also to do what I want,” Hartline says with a pleasant laugh.

Hartline will tell you cancer helped her find a passion for art.  Because of the disease, she left her career as a cardiac nurse in Charlotte, moved to Ashville, and opened up a studio.  It was a Wind River retreat that helped her reach this peaceful state.  “It just soothes me,” said Hartline. “It got rid of everything in my mind, about my cancer, my doctors, my family, friends; everything was on top of me.”

This holistic approach to medicine not only helps heal the body from cancer, but also the mind and spirit.  Dr. Gary Frenette, an oncologist with Carolinas Medical Center, recommends that his patients attend Wind River. He also thinks this type of treatment is the most neglected of current cancer care. “The point for these patients is not to get back to where they were,” said Frenette, “but to be better than they were; to be more whole than they were and have a more balanced attitude about life in general.”  Frenette says doctors treating cancer patients are fantastic at the technical issues of delivering the therapy, but “now we have to come all the way around, and give the after care that’s so important in the healing process.”

Both cancer patients and medical professionals describe Wind River as a healing place for individuals who are going or have been through therapy. Those individuals connect with others going through similar circumstances. But they also connect with nature and the things that are important to them.  “I think Wind River really helped me see there's a community out there of people who really chose to see this as a journey and as an adventure,” said Dana Pillsbury.  “Something that can be survived and that you can live through it.

Pillsbury has not only survived cancer on three different occasions.   But she’s also done it while working as a high school English teacher at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and being a mom to 14-year-old teenage twins.  Wind River helped all of them cope with the fear and the unknown.  “And to never say quit; never say give up; but to continue to kind of push forward with what your intention is,” said Pillsbury.  “My intention is to be here for a while.”

That’s the kind of attitude that Wind River encourages through its holistic program. It’s also one that Graham encouraged his wife Missi to have. “I think with any disease 85 to 90 percent of it is up here,” Graham said, pointing at his head.  And he speaks from experience because his wife has survived breast cancer for the past 10 years. Missi attended Wind River as a camper. That’s why they help raise money for the non-profit organization. The money from the benefit concert will help ensure that Wind River services remain free of charge to participants.