Help Barry recoup from robbery

Kenny Forgione here, and I'm starting a fundraiser for my friend and musical compadre Barry Waller. Barry has been playing music on Long Island and elsewhere, including at times with my band Wonderous Stories, for many years. In recent years Barry has been the bass guitarist for the popular oldies show "The Happy Together Tour." When the tour ends at the end of the Summer, gigs are lean, especially with COVID . When local musicians come back from national tours they usually depend on the little nest egg that they'd made to get them through the lean months . This is usually tough, but it's okay because that is the way of a touring musician . What is not okay is that Barry's entire pay from the tour, which amounted to $12,500 in cash, was robbed from him at the airport the day after this past Summer's tour was over.

Barry was carrying cash rather than depositing tour money, for fear of his bank account being frozen by a hospital for an unpaid bill from an auto accident-related surgical procedure in 2020. Unbeknownst to Barry until just a few days before this tour began, his No Fault insurance had deemed his surgery "unnecessary," and the bill had remained unpaid for over a year.

Upon arriving home from the tour at LaGuardia Airport to discover his cash had been stolen, Barry went to American Airlines Customer Service where he was told to go home and file a claim online. No one at the airport said anything to Barry about there being a Police Headquarters right on LaGuardia's premises. The following day, Barry's car was wrecked in Hurricane Ida while driving back to the airport to file his Police report.

Barry has tried to keep afloat, and I knew nothing of all of this until last month when his funds had completely run out . He is now in jeopardy of not having a place to live, without any real means to pay his bills temporarily.

The Police have not been able to resolve this issue and they say that they never will. There was foul play at the airport, and American Airlines, TSA and FEMA have all denied Barry's claims as well as his appeals. Lawyers have told Barry that suing TSA is basically suing the federal government which is nearly impossible not to mention extremely expensive.

I told Barry that my opinion was to wait till after the holidays for me to try to help him . He didn't want to bother anyone with his troubles, but he told me of his situation, and he really needs help to catch up on old bills and to be able to pay his rent. I'm trying to help him recoup as close as we can get of the amount he was robbed .

Barry has never asked anything from anyone in his life, and he didn't ask me but I took it upon myself to try to help him . I realize that there are many people in need, and this is a close musician friend of mine and many others . It's hard enough to make money as a musician, and when an entire seasons work is taken from you it is devastating. I plan on having Barry play at a few of Wonderous Stories live shows and Barry would like to extend his gratitude to all donors by giving each of them a copy of his great signed cd. Thanks so much for any help you can give.