Rocking for relief

When disaster strikes — as in the devastating string of East Coast hurricanes last fall — how would you help? Give money? Serve on a work team? Organize a rock band?

The latter is what eight Lutherans in the Carolinas and Georgia have done, as they rock their way around multistate fund-raisers for Lutheran Disaster Relief and other charitable causes.

"We're like Farm-Aid," says drummer Dave Calloway, a member of Christ the King Lutheran Church, Cary, N.C. "We help raise awareness of the needs and then provide a way for people to have fun as they come together to support a common cause."

Although members just started playing together last year, they have been around the block. Ranging in their mid-30s to mid-50s, most began making music as kids and together tally some 200 years of experience — including a century or so playing in bands.