Students plan telethon in honor of Kyle Robinson

By KAYLA DEMICCO
Co-Executive Editor

A 12-hour virtual telethon in honor of the late Kyle Robinson’s 22nd birthday will take place on March 20 via YouTube. The telethon will be hosted by The Kyle Robinson Memorial Foundation (abbreviated KRMF), which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization created and run by a group of mostly current and graduated students at The College of Saint Rose.

Kyle Robinson was a music industry major who was on the track to graduate in May 2021 who died in a car accident in July 2020. To carry on his legacy and passion for music, Kacie Ciarelli, a senior music industry major, was inspired to start an organization in his honor that hopes to benefit anyone looking to pursue a career in music. Ciarelli, who has been best friends with Robinson since their freshman year in fall 2017, is the president of KRMF and oversees all board member updates on a daily basis and steers the ship that is the foundation.

The KRMF was founded as a non-profit organization in Oct. 2020 and consists of 15 people on the board. To form this board, Ciarelli invited everyone into a group chat and asked if they were interested in starting the foundation with her. All but one of the board members are or were music industry majors at the college.

“It’s interesting because [everyone has] found something that they were passionate about [within the foundation],” said Ciarelli.

Ciarelli spoke on the foundation’s ultimate goals that the board had decided on, and the paths that would lead to achieving them.

“We were planning on doing a small scholarship fund through The Office of Annual Giving at Saint Rose or another large fund, but we wanted to become a non-profit so that we would have the opportunity to do more things within the music community,” said Ciarelli. “A non-profit would allow us to give more in various forms such as equipment, time, etc, and provide educational resources for musicians, which was more up our alley, rather than just giving money in Kyle’s name.”

Board member of KRMF and alum of Saint Rose, Mark Manning, first proposed to the rest of the board in late 2020 to put on a telethon after being a part of one for himself. As he recorded videos for different events, he realized how easy raising money and getting their feet off the ground would be.

“Once I put the idea out there, we got things running,” said Manning.

As a board member, Manning is on the beneficiary team for the scholarship they plan to give out with the money they raise. According to Manning, the eligibility for the scholarship will be open to music majors of any kind after their second year of college nationwide. Applicants will be required to submit a small portfolio of things that they have worked on in relation to their aspiring major. The application for this is expected to open in spring 2022.

Gabriel Klingler-Horn, another board member and current senior music industry major, will be the master of ceremonies for the event that will feature around 40 different musical acts throughout the day.

“I’m excited about the prospect of [the telethon] being seen as a [festival],” said Klingler-Horn.

Since the entire virtual event will consist of pre-recorded acts, Klingler-Horn, as well as other board members will be behind the scenes making sure to answer questions if viewers have any issues with donating to the foundation.

As the only non-Saint Rose student on the board, Katie Robinson, Kyle’s younger sister and freshman at the University of New Hampshire, she will be helping promote the event from their hometown in Plymouth, Mass. She serves as the correspondence between the team based in Albany and Robinson’s family back home.

Becuase Robinson’s sister is based in Plymouth, she finds the distance to be a bit challenging to be involved in decision making.

“[The Albany team is] doing very well. Kacie is doing very well at leading the discussion,” said Robinson’s sister. “[My parents] love it, they both try to sit in on the meetings [every week].”

One of the performers for the telethon, Valerie Barbosa, a senior communications major, she also created some of the promotion videos for the event.

For one of the reasons that inspired her to submit a performance video for the telethon, she said, “[It’s] such an emotional topic. I wanted to let the music do the talking.”

As a friend of Robinson’s, he has helped her with her own music projects and she considered him to be a “whiz in the studio” and felt lucky to have him on her team. Barbosa remembered Robinson as someone who was always completely himself, genuinely interested in other people’s work, and empowering to everyone.

“Everyone has donated performances, they’re unbelievably generous and inspired by our mission,” said Ciarelli.

While there are going to be several musical acts that are current and past students from The College of Saint Rose, some musicians that have a large following include Racoma, Joe P (also known from Deal Casino), Julia Gargano, and Lawrence. Lawrence, a pop group who is signed to Beautiful Mind Records, was one of Kyle’s favorite bands and he had a “major crush” on the lead singer, Gracie Lawerence, according to all his friends.

After Amy Branham, another board member and secretary for KRMF, reached out to their manager, Ciarelli said, “They’ve been so nice and so responsive.”

Over the course of the 12 hours for the telethon, the group is aiming to raise at least $7,500. A longer term goal of theirs is to raise $50,000 on the one-year anniversary in October 2021. People can donate by visiting the website at krmemorialfoundation.org or contacting them via email at contact@krmemorialfoundation.org for other ways to donate.

“Our goal for this foundation is to not just take Kyle’s legacy, it’s so that we as his friends will stay together to cherish him,” said Ciarelli.