Web Exclusives: PawPlus

July 5, 2005:

July 16 concert to ‘spark’ support for Afghan school

David Sancious, an original member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, will appear in concert July 16 in Red Bank, N.J., to benefit a school in Afghanistan supported by an international humanitarian group started by two Princeton graduates.

Sancious is performing on behalf of SPARKS International, a student-run group started by Karim Thomas ’04 and his sister Rishma Thomas ’05 when they were elementary school students in Vancouver, British Columbia. The organization grew from a school service club to a non-profit group that created the SPARKS Academy in the Afghan capital of Kabul. The school, which describes itself as “the first independent co-educational school of excellence in the country,” was created to prepare Afghan students to attend western universities, with the hope that they will return home to become the civic and social leaders of their country. The school is located in a temporary facility while SPARKS raises funds for a permanent home on land donated by the city of Kabul.

The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Two River Theatre at 21 Bridge Ave. in Red Bank. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online through the Two River Theatre Web site (www.trtc.org), by phone (732-345-1400), or at the box office. The concert originally was scheduled for July 2, but the date was changed to July 16.

Sancious played piano on Springsteen’s first two albums, as well as on the title track of “Born to Run.” In 1974, Sancious left the E Street Band to pursue his own music while also working as a studio musician, recording with Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Eric Clapton.