A local nonprofit is hosting a community concert on Nov. 26 at the Buckhead Theatre to celebrate the life of Manny Pargman and to inspire people to take action to prevent suicide.
Manny’s Band Foundation is a nonprofit started in memory of Manny, a Sandy Springs teenager who died by suicide last year. Manny’s family and friends started the foundation as a way to advocate for suicide prevention.
“It is my belief that Manny is not here because nobody in his life, including myself, bridged that general sense of awareness out there to the resources that could have helped him,” Ben Pargman, Manny’s father, said. “That’s the gap. That’s what’s missing.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 19.
The foundation invites people to participate in “Manny’s Band Practice,” where they can take part in QPR training and practice having open conversations about suicide. QPR stands for Question, Persuade, and Refer, which the QPR Institute calls “the [three] simple steps anyone can learn to help save a life from suicide.”
“That moment where an individual translates general awareness to your child requires a skill that most people don’t have,” Ben said. “It requires having a conversation that most people have never had before. That’s what the training programs are about.”
Ben said that for him, one of the biggest challenges around suicide prevention is this prevailing idea that for most people, they feel that it’s not their problem, or something that they’ll never have to worry about. Part of Manny’s Band Foundation’s mission is to make people realize the necessity of participating in the training.
“The real important point of the ‘not my problem’ problem, is that every kid’s formula of trauma is different,” Ben said.
Ben said there was never really a question about whether music would play a central role in the foundation. Manny loved music, and was a talented musician and drummer who was learning to be a DJ.
“Using music to be the catalyst of bringing people together just seemed obvious from the beginning, because Manny was such a musician, and music was so part of his identity,” Ben said.
Ben said the idea for the concert originally rose from some of Manny’s friends. The lineup for the concert includes musicians like the band The Stews; Gus Glasser, who is a family friend of the Pargmans; and Ian Maman, who was friends with Manny. The concert begins at 7:15 p.m., with proceeds benefitting Manny’s Band.
Attendees will have the opportunity to sign up for Manny’s Band Practice so they can later practice having these difficult conversations.
“The artists that are onstage at the concert, they didn’t get there because they had a general awareness of music,” Ben said. “They got to the stage because they can perform. And they can perform because they practiced.”