MMF’s sixth Apocalypse Meow comes on with a roar

A woman with a bright shock of long, hot-pink hair smokes in the Team Auto Sales doorway. She laughs at something she hears from inside the office of this tiny, crowded used-car lot at 79th Street and Wornall.

Sondra Freeman, director of promotions for the Midwest Music Foundation, stubs out her cigarette on the pavement and heads back inside. She sits down at a metal desk that’s busy with piles of paper, in front of a wall lined with concert posters. Across the desk sits Rhonda Lyne, MMF’s director of development, wearing a Shangri-Las T-shirt.

This tightly clustered office is where Freeman and Lyne, two crucial organizers of the Midwest Music Foundation, often meet. The organization doesn’t have its own space, so Freeman — who co-owns Team Auto Sales — uses the room as a part-time headquarters and occasional storage space for MMF.

Today, Freeman and Lyne are discussing Apocalypse Meow, the fundraiser scheduled for Friday, November 1 (at the Midwestern Musical Co.), and Saturday, November 2 (on two stages at Knuckleheads). The Saturday lineup includes She’s a Keeper, Not a Planet, Tony Ladesich and Betse Ellis, among others, but the weekend also has a notable absence. This sixth annual Meow is the first without Abigail Henderson. The MMF co-founder died of cancer in August, at age 36.

When Henderson, a well-known area singer-songwriter and member of four bands, was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer, in 2008, Apocalypse Meow was her friends’ rallying cry. The first Meow raised nearly $20,000 in Henderson’s name, and part of that went to help her fight the insurance company that refused to cover her chemotherapy.

“They [Henderson and her husband, MMF co-founder Chris Meck] had to hire an attorney,” Lyne says. “Otherwise they would have lost everything. You shouldn’t have to worry about money when you’re trying to fight for your life.”

The rest of the money from that first Meow went toward forming MMF, and Apocalypse Meow has returned each year since. Now, everything raised goes into Abby’s Fund for Musicians’ Healthcare.

“That money goes to help provide emergency funds to other musicians,” Lyne says. “Abby swore that night [at the first Meow in 2008] that she’d be back to help everyone, and as soon as she had her treatments and was healthy enough, there she was.”

Freeman and Lyne are about the furthest thing from doe-eyed sympathy-seekers. Midwest Music Foundation is a full-time job on top of their other full-time jobs. They are tough, the kind of women you wouldn’t easily approach at a bar. And the Henderson they remember was equally fierce.

“The one thing I keep thinking is, ‘I really wish Abby was here to see this,'” Lyne says. “This was her passion, and she fought so hard even while she was fighting for her life, she fought so hard for music. She always believed it should be a legitimate career.”

“Abby believed that music can take you to where you need to be and that it’s important, and the people that do that need to be taken care of,” Freeman adds. “Her role was to assist, in any way she could, in making being a musician a viable occupation.”

Since its inception, Abby’s Fund has distributed more than $30,000 in aid to area musicians. But Henderson’s goals were always bigger, and Freeman and Lyne now hope to push MMF to the next level. With the help of the recently awarded ArtsKC Catalyst Grant (and, they hope, a winning vote count in Boulevard Brewing Co.’s latest 10% for KC Pils campaign), Freeman and Lyne have plans to expand MMF’s services for area musicians.

“A lot of musicians in Kansas City are struggling to pay their bills,” Lyne says. “They may not be able to afford the ‘affordable care’ [of the Affordable Care Act]. We’re trying to help educate musicians. We’re partnering with Southwest Boulevard Clinic to do another well-woman [clinic], and … we want to bring in experts to do an affordable healthcare workshop to help musicians understand what their options are. We want to help them learn that there are ways to navigate the system.”

Nonprofit work is rarely glamorous, but Freeman and Lyne are unshakable. Both say their allegiance to MMF is woven through their dedication to Henderson.

“It’s been really horrible losing Abby, but the support of the community since we lost her has been amazing,” Lyne says. “I personally made her a promise. Toward the end, she was really struggling. She was on her oxygen tank, and one night I was putting her to bed, and she just kind of whispered, ‘MMF.’ And I was like, ‘I have it taken care of.'”

“Quitting is not an option,” Freeman says. “It’s just absolutely not an option. Abby told me, ‘You’re here for a reason.’ And I think Midwest Music Foundation is that reason.”