Community Corner

High School Rock Band Reunites After 40 Years For Charity Concert

Former Great Neck South students come together for Katie's Cause cancer awareness charity.

Members of a Great Neck high school band reunited after 40 years for a benefit performance in support of the Third Annual Katie Oppo Memorial Run/Walk, an ovarian cancer charity. 

“The Rockets”, led by Barry Douglas, M.D., keyboardist and a partner at Long Island Plastic Surgical Group, a firm with offices in Manhasset and Garden City, performed following the 6.19k run/walk on June 23 in Flower Hill Park in Manhasset.

Inspired by the Rolling Stones, the band met and started playing together more than 40 years ago while students at Great Neck South. The group had not seen each other, or played together, in many years, until Katie’s cause became the reason for a reunion.  These days, the members try to practice whenever they can get together; and they perform sets when the venue, timing and individual schedules fall in-line. Katie Oppo’s Memorial Run/Walk is an imperative cause, band members say.

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“It’s amazing to me that a bunch of guys could come together again,” remarked Douglas.  “When we first heard about the benefit, we immediately decided to play and help raise awareness for Katie’s cause. We are honored and hope that through our music we are playing a part in supporting the research effort, giving back to the North Shore community from which the band sprang.”

The third-annual Katie Oppo Memorial Run/Walk charity event was organized by Manhasset resident Liz Oppo, whose 19-year-old daughter, Katie, a pre-med student at Johns Hopkins University, died of ovarian cancer in 2011.  Johns Hopkins University will receive a grant this year from all donations raised. 

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