Anchorage bands headline benefit for family of suicide victim

Several Anchorage-based bands from the blues and folk genre are slated to play Friday night at the Asia Garden restaurant on the Old Seward at a memorial benefit concert honoring the life of Michael Kneuppel, of Chugiak, who died from self-inflicted wounds on Sept. 30.

The event – being organized by friends of Kneuppel’s older sister, Jessica Grant – is part commemoration of his life and part fundraiser for his family to defray the unexpected expenses of his death.

His mother, Carolyn Boone, said the benefit concert has goals beyond just fundraising.

“It is my hope that other people who are feeling hopeless like Michael was will recognize that suicide is not the solution. It may feel like it at that moment, but it is not,” she said. “I believe Michael himself would even say that.”

Doors for the benefit concert open at 7 a.m. with a silent auction immediately scheduled to start. Music begins at 8 p.m., according to the event flyer and its lead organizer, Sarah Anne McCain.

First up on the schedule is Chad Reynvaan of Chromies – self-described at the Facebook site as “American rock-n-roll from the garage” – playing acoustic guitar during the silent auction.

“He is going to play some really mellow music for when people first get there,” McCain said.

Next up is Mason Venhaus, the worship leader at the Eagle River-based Alliance Christian Fellowship where Boone and her children attend religious services.

The Super Saturated Sugar Strains, also an Anchorage-based group, are slated to follow Venhaus.

The gypsy-folk rock band is a favorite of Grant.

“We knew Jessica would love having them play, so we talked to “Kat” – Kathryn Moore – from the band and she was immediately a yes,” McCain said.

The Friday night benefit is one of the band’s last local appearances before leaving on a Pacific Northwest tour starting in Hood River, Oregon, and working its way up the coast for a final appearance in Bellingham, Washington.

Rebel Blues – a favorite of Boone’s – is set to close the show with its self-described “Block Funkrty Hop,” a fusion of blues, rock, funk, country and hip-hop as stated on the band’s Facebook page.

Blues-Rock-Funk-Country-Hip Hop...in other words, a new style we have dubbed "Block Funktry Hop."

Boone is looking forward to listening to Rebel Blues and invites her friends and friends of her family to attend and celebrate the 18 years of life her son lived.

Kneuppel was a senior at Chugiak High School. He had spent last summer in Spain. He was a member of the school’s World Discovery Seminar – a specialized academic community. He lifted weights and Boone said his quadriceps had become so large that he had to wear shorts instead of jeans.

Two and half years ago, Kneuppel was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

He had voluntarily checked himself into Providence Hospital, Boone said, and sought help to learn coping skills and strategies.

Boone said she and Michael talked frequently – she worked at keeping the lines of communication open with her son. He was doing better. He was faithful to his medication regime. He went to counseling. He admitted to Boone and other family members when he was feeling the depressive part of bipolar and when he was feeling the mania begin.

Boone said she saw progress and had hope that her son’s skills for managing the disorder were developing successfully.

Less than a week before Michael’s suicide, Boone and he reviewed the fact that it was time for him to make another doctor’s appointment.

Then Sept. 30 happened.

Carolyn had left for the day. But for some reason, she went back to the family home that morning. She did not know why she was drawn back there until she arrived to find her son dead in the garage, the result of a self-inflicted gunshot.

“Fortunately, I am the one who found him and not one of his siblings,” she said, spoken from the kind of heartspace only a mother can know. “That would have been much worse.”

Boone and her children – Michael, Grant and Gabriel Kneuppel – called themselves the “core four.” Boone has been a single mother for 13 years. Keeping her children close; being a tight unit caring for and supporting each other was one of the family’s goals, she said, when she left what she described as an abusive marriage.

Yet, despite the family’s closeness, Boone said Michael’s condition overpowered his thinking for just long enough for him to make one last fatal choice.

“He knew we loved him and yet he still made that choice,” she said. “I believe it was in a moment of hopelessness.”

At times – but not that often – she wrestles with the idea of what may be different if she had returned home earlier than she did.

For the most part, however, she said she rests in the knowledge that she, her children and Michael’s extended family and friends did all they could to help him.

In light of the fact that two other Eagle River area youth have committed suicide within the past year, Boone wants to tell anyone that is feeling hopeless that suicide is not the answer to their current situation.

She wants them to know that it is a permanent solution to a temporary problem that leaves much devastation for those left behind.

“I want anyone who is struggling to know that they have a purpose and that their life has value not just to their family and their friends, but also to their Creator and that there is help for those who are struggling or suffering,” Boone said. “Every life is valuable.”

More information regarding this benefit concert is available at Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1768414803455802/ or search for “Memorial for Michael Benefit Show.” Event sponsors suggest a $12 donation (cash only) at the door. Event is being held at the Asia Garden at 7828 Old Seward Highway in Anchorage.