Guitarist Nick Colionne, who is dedicated to music education for young people, will join the Friends of Franklin at a special fundraising event in support of the Franklin Fine Arts Center. The Lunch In The Limelight benefit auction will take place on October 7th at Preston Bradley Hall, at the Chicago Cultural Center. Other celebs set to attend the event include John Mahoney of Frasier, Freddy Rodriguez of Grindhouse and Six Feet Under, Richard Dent of the Chicago Bears, Daniel J. Travanti of Hill Street Blues, and others.

The Franklin Fine Arts Center is a Chicago Public Magnet elementary school in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood focused on the visual and performing arts. The inner-city school serves 368 children from all over the city, and forty percent of the students' families are at or below poverty level. The school boasts high academic scores but is in need of new computers, carpeting, and other repairs. More information is available at lunchinthelimelight.com.

The busy Chicago guitarist always finds time to meet with student musicians and publishes an online newsletter called "Nick's Notes For Kids." His current CD is titled Keepin' It Cool.

Colionne will perform today, August 25th at the Yorkfest Arts Festival Community Jazz Concert in York, Pennsylvania. For more dates, go to nickcolionne.com.



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