Be Loud! ‘23
Our tenth and final concert for the foreseeable future featured tributes to Echo & the Bunnymen and R.E.M. with this amazing lineup. You can enjoy the Echo & the Bunnymen songs after the Steiner family give some opening remarks. And after the Steiners introduce Lauren and the entire AYA team to the crowd, the R.E.M songs begin.
Open House for the Be Loud! Center for Young Adult Cancer Care
We hosted an Open House for this center, which UNC named in honor of our foundation. The space features seven outpatient infusion chairs in a beautiful environment with natural elements, including expansive windows that allow the sunshine to pour in.
Be Loud! ’22
We threw our 9th annual Be Loud! show at Cat’s Cradle with this incredible lineup of bands. You can enjoy the livestream of the full concert!
Bike Loud 2022
Another bike crew of young people cycled across the country in support of our mission. Read about their 10 week adventure at Bike Loud.org!
High School Music Showcase
Eight bands took over the Cat’s Cradle for an afternoon of great music.
Be Loud! ’21
This year we called it Be Loud! Calling to celebrate the 40th anniversary (delayed by a year because of COVID-19) of The Clash’s seminal double album, London Calling. The full show is here, which is amazing! And here’s the complete lineup of bands that played!
Bike Loud 2021
The next team of local Boy Scouts rode from North Carolina to Maine as a challenge to themselves and as a way to raise over $25,000 and awareness about us. Read about their adventure at bikeloud.org!
Be Loud! ’20
We didn’t let covid stop the music. Although we didn’t pack the Cat’s Cradle, we still enjoyed streaming performances from past shows virtually: The Sex Police and the Spressials.
Bike Loud 2020
Despite covid (or maybe because of it) another young crew crossed the country on bikes and raised over $40,000 for us along the way!
Acme Dessert
For a whole year, Acme restaurant in Carrboro is offering a little treat and making a big donation to us. Amazingly generous of chef/owner Kevin Callaghan!
Be Loud! Carolina
Four amazing UNC musical acts packed the Backroom of the Cat’s Cradle and raised almost $1,000 for us. And they are ready to play again net next!
Be Loud! ’19
Another great weekend of music and community hit the Cats Cradle, and raised $41,562! Full line up is here!
Bike Loud 2019
Three local Eagle Scouts biked over 4,000 miles from Washington to Maine and raised over $14,000 for Be Loud! Sophie. Retrace their amazing journey here!
King of the Hill
Hometown lacrosse rivals CHHS and ECHHS competed for the title King of the Hill while also raising $6,000 for us!
High School Music Showcase
Eight bands took over the Cat’s Cradle for an afternoon of great music.
Loud Stories!
Lauren Lux, two former AYA patients and three community members told true, personal tales about using your voice and staying true to yourself even when the odds stack against you. Because our friend Natalia Lutterman organized it so well, we plan to make it an annual event!
Be Loud Carolina!
Dissimilar South, Alo Ver, People of Earth and Cypher all performed at the Cat’s Cradle on January 30 to highlight musical talent at Carolina and the raise awareness about our work.
The Songs of Big Star
Members of R.E.M., the dBs, Wilco, Let’s Active and many more performed the music of the seminal band Big Star at Cat’s Cradle on Saturday, December 15th and the show raised over $13,000 for us!
Salt and Smoke
Whole heritage hog BBQ and a heaping plate of southern sides, perfect raw oysters, the best local booze, live music all day long, and much more put together by the chef of Acme. Plus, they offered a Be Loud! package where donations came to the Foundation.
Be Loud! ’18
Two nights of incredible music at Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro headlined by Matthew Sweet and the Sex Police. Check out the full video of the Sex Police set and the complete line up! This weekend raised $49,138 for us!
Bake Loud 17
A group of teenage girls once again sold an amazing amount of delicious treats at Merritt’s as a fundraiser for us. So sweet!
North Carolina Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Symposium
Lauren Lux and Dr. Andrew Smitherman led the state’s first AYA symposium in April 2018, bringing together multidisciplinary providers from across North Carolina who are interested in improving care for this unique patient population.
Get Your Be Loud On
Annual spring showcase features some of the best local high school bands on stage at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrboro.
Acme’s Birthday
Carrboro’s legendary restaurant celebrated its 20th anniversary with a party and a tribute to Be Loud!. Thanks Kevin and the whole crew!
Be Loud Carolina!
Great bands of current and former UNC students got loud at the Cat’s Cradle.
City Kitchen in August
This local restaurant made a special sangria for the month of August and gave proceeds from it to us!
Be Loud! ’17
Two nights of incredible music at Cat’s Cradle, with all proceeds benefiting the Foundation.
Birthday Party at Autologic
The kind folks at Autologic again chose us and the Make-a-Wish Foundation to be the recipients of the donations they collected at their annual birthday party. We both got $700, which is just remarkable! Thanks so much Marianne Jones and everyone else at this great local business.
Color the Hill
This is the wackiest run you can have on a cross country course! The proceeds from it benefited three local non-profits: the Academy of Information Technology of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation and SKJAJA Fund.
Bake Loud!
The sweetness of Bake Loud! hit Chapel Hill again as a handful of girls baked a mountain of things and sold them in the parking lot of Merritt’s to benefit Be Loud! and Make-a-Wish. Amazingly, in a few hours they raised over $2,700. From a bake sale!!!
Talbots
Talbots at Southpoint donated 10% of pre-tax sales to Be Loud! on a day when our Board Members Beth Leiro and Beverley Tyndall were in the store from 5pm-8pm talking about our work.
Get Your Be Loud on!
The sound of youth hit the Cat’s Cradle as the Be Loud! Club at East Chapel Hill High School, together with a bunch of area high schools, put on the 3rd annual “Get Your Be Loud On!” a musical showcase highlighting tons of local talent.
Ladies in Red
Thanks to Sophie’s friend Aubrie Phillips, NC State’s a cappella group Ladies in Red highlighted Be Loud! at Aubrie’s last concert with them.
Be Loud Carolina!
Five great bands with ties to UNC played a benefit concert at the Cat’s Cradle and raised over $500!
Roller Race
Derek Powers organized a night of spinning on bikes – at the Cat’s Cradle of all places! It was pretty wild and it raised $650 for us!
Eat Loud!
Sandwhich in Chapel Hill displayed many of Sophie’s beautiful photos and kindly offered proceeds from sales to us.
Nancy’s Birthday
Our dear friend Nancy Curby celebrated turning 50 with a fundraiser on Facebook for us which raised a very loud $1,500!
Ozzie’s Birthday
Ozzie Hassel had his birthday party and asked his guests to be loud for Be Loud!. And they were – he collected over $300 in what he called his #BeLoudBasket! Thanks so much to the birthday boy and his many generous friends.
Durham Academy Boo Loud!
Durham Academy’s Be Loud! Club is having another monstrous Halloween bake sale. However, to add a little Trick to these Treats, they’re going to dress up five administrators for the bake sale.
Annual conference of the Association of Community Cancer Centers
Lauren Lux and Lucy and Niklaus Steiner were the featured speakers at this conference. Lucy and Niklaus spoke about Sophie’s experience in the hospital and then Lauren gave a powerful presentation on what she is doing to address the gaps in care that Sophie had identified.
Pasta for Purpose
The Carolina Alumni Club hosted its Pasta for Purpose dinner and we were grateful to be the beneficiaries of both the proceeds and the delicious food!
Run Loud!
A very loud team including board member Paul Youngman ran 200 miles(!) in the Blue Ridge Relay to raise money and awareness for us.
Be Loud! ’16!
The English Beat, Preeesh!, Hobex, Chris Stamey’s Occasional Shivers, I Was Totally Destroying It, PopUp Chorus, Billy Warden and the Floating Children and so much more came to Cat’s Cradle for Be Loud ’16! and it all raised $46,723!
Color the Hill Run
The Color the Hill 4k and Fun Run is the loudest, most colorful time you can have on a cross country course and it supports three great local charities, including Be Loud! Sophie.
Youth Choirs
The youth choirs of United Church of Chapel Hill, University Methodist Church and University Presbyterian Church held their 2nd annual benefit concert and this year chose Be Loud! Sophie to be the beneficiary which meant a gift of over $2,000.
Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival
The good folks at the Shakori Hills generously donated $10 to the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation for each 4-day pass sold between March 7th and 13th for their Spring 2016 festival.
Bake Loud!
A bunch of girls from Smith Middle School sold an amazing amount of baked goods in honor of their friend Margaret Stoffregen, with all proceeds going to Be Loud! Sophie Foundation and the Duke Sarcoma Center.
Get Your Be Loud On Showcase
Over a dozen performers showed off their talents and expressed their teenage life at the Cat’s Cradle on a Sunday afternoon.
Sham Rockers
What better way to spend St. Patrick’s Day than with the Sham Rockers, a spin-off of the Red Clay Ramblers? Good tunes and good friends in the Backroom of the Cat’s Cradle for a good cause – they’re donating all proceeds to the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation.
Sandwhich
This Chapel Hill restaurant held 10 days of loudness that raised $2,000 for us. Janet the owner was also kind enough to display 20 of Sophie’s photos on the wall.
Woods Charter School
Woods held its annual Charity Ball and made us the beneficiary of their kindness. Niklaus and Lucy had the pleasure of going out to the school and collecting a $1,000 check (and a $5 bill!) from the students.
Smith Middle School
A big loud thank you to Smith Middle School and Phil Holmes for raising $300 through their annual pajama party. You are one loud crew!!
Pop Up Chorus
This local organization organized a David Bowie tribute at Motorco and donated over $1,600 of proceeds to our foundation. David and Sophie knew how to be loud.
Glenwood Elementary School
Glenwood threw another pajama party this year and again made a donation to us. Many thanks to Vivian Quimbaya-Winship for organizing it and to all the children, teachers, and parents who supported it.
Be Loud! ’15
An extraordinary array of local bands all donated their immense talent to raise over $40,000 – almost half a year of support for our program at UNC.
Red Clay Ramblers
The Red Clay Ramblers with special guests Tift Merritt and Don Dixon headlined a benefit concert at the Barn at Fearrington Village. What a great way to spend a summer evening!
Bike Loud!
Seven local teenage boys biked 4,000 across the entire country and raised over $40,000 for the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation. All with no vehicle support!
Boxcar Bar + Arcade
This cool bar and arcade in Raleigh’s Warehouse District made us one of their causes for their weekly Drink for a Cause benefit night. People must have had a good time, because we got a check for over $500.
Bake Sale!
Sixth grade girls at Smith Middle School raised $1,800 for their friend Margaret and for Be Loud!
Color the Hill
Over 100 runners joined Team Sophie for the 3rd annual Color the Hill run in Chapel Hill.
Relay for Life
We spoke at the Luminary Ceremony for this annual event at UNC that raises awareness and funds for cancer treatment.
Get Your Be Loud On
The Be Loud! Sophie Club at East Chapel Hill High School organized the Get Your Be Loud On showcase of local high school talent at the Cat’s Cradle.
Middle School Art Show
Art students at C. W. Stanford Middle School in Hillsborough sold handmade items at their semester art show and donated all proceeds to us.
Holiday Parade in Chapel Hill and Carrboro
So enjoyed sharing a float with the Super Cooper Foundation to raise awareness about pediatric cancer.
Women’s Giving Party
The 2014 Chapel Hill Giving Party supported Miraclefeet, Be Loud! Sophie, Meals on Wheels and Fuel Up Perry Harrison. Generous guests raised a record total of $19,175. Thanks so much to all, especially the organizers Perri, Mary Beth, Casey and Sue.
Alternative Gift Market
Thanks so much to the United Church of Chapel Hill for organizing this great annual event, which celebrated its 25th year. We were there with t-shirts, notecards and stickers.
Halloween at Acme
As a fundraiser, Acme in Carrboro hosted a special evening on this special night: great food and classic scary movies projected onto a screen – all in the parking lot out back.
Raise a Racquet
The FARM hosted the second annual Raise a Racquet fundraiser to benefit support programs for adolescent cancer patients at the North Carolina Children’s Hospital. Thanks so much Nate Lipson, Laura and Andrew Montross, and Debra and Jake Zinn for organizing such an amazing event.
Pajama Parties at School
Ephesus, Rashkis and Glenwood Elementary Schools and Smith Middle School all held Pajama Days to raise awareness about teen cancer and funds for our foundation.
Blue Ridge Relay
Advisory Board members Paul Youngman and Jean McDonald joined 10 other runners in the 200 mile Blue Ridge Relay to raise money for the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation.
Be Loud! ’14
The Pressure Boys headlined a two night festival at Cat’s Cradle with The Connells, Let’s Active, Dexter Romweber Duo and many more performing, with all proceeds benefited the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation. You can enjoy the full livestream of The Pressure Boys and Let’s Active, and see the full lineup here.
Be Loud! Bakery
Our young friends Ava and Margaret in St Louis are self-taught bakers on a mission. They built a cupcake truck to pull through their neighborhood and are sending all their profits to Be Loud! Sophie.
Birthday Tributes
We’re so grateful to everyone who’s been collecting donations for Be Loud! Sophie in lieu of birthday gifts. The most recent examples of this generosity are Caroline, Mary Jane, Sophie, Grace, Cameron, and Katie.
Chapel Hill Tennis Club’s Carnival Days
Each year, the Chapel Hill Tennis Club selects a local charity to support with its Carnival Day’s fundraiser. This year, Jordan and his coaches chose our foundation because his younger sister danced with Sophie at Studio A. Swimmers from ages 4-18 spent a morning holding pie throwing contests, competing in diving contests and playing greasy watermelon games. In a very kind letter to us, he reports “Our team was very loud during the carnival and everyone had a great time.”
Studio A Dance Performance “Songs for Sophie” May 31 2pm
In honor of Sophie, a much loved member of the Studio A Dance family, ballet dancers performed to songs that Sophie loved like “You Swept Me Away” by the Avett Brothers and to songs that expressed our feelings, helped us remember, and reminded us that we still have much to do in this dance called life. The Studio A Dance Performance group has also performed at the UNC Children’s Hospital on two occasions and is planning on scheduling additional visits.
Autologic’s 28th Birthday Party
Autologic celebrated its birthday with free hamburgers, hot dogs, vegi dogs, chips, drinks plus 2 birthday cakes and homemade ice cream. This celebration also collected over $500 in donations for our foundation. Thanks so much Marianne Jones and everyone else at this great local business.
Durham Academy Zumbathon
Durham Academy’s Upper School Dance Club decided to make the Be Loud! Sophie Foundation the beneficiary of their annual Zumbathon. Several of the dancers knew Sophie personally and were inspired by her story. DA teacher Laci McDonald pulled it all together in style.
Color the Hill 4k Fun Run
For every runner who joined the Be Loud! Sophie team, we received a $5 donation and a lot of colorful runners. Thanks to Eric and Charlotte White for organizing this amazing event, and to Ami Israel and Leah Steiner for pulling together Team Sophie.
Alvin Ailey Dance Movement Class
Our friend, Raymond Farrow, who is the Development Director for Carolina Performing Arts, noticed a photo of Sophie in her Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater t-shirt and had the idea to connect one of the Ailey dancers, Hope Boykin, with the adolescent cancer patients at North Carolina Children’s Hospital. We are so very grateful to Raymond, Hope, and Emil Kang, Executive Director for the Arts, for organizing a movement class for these patients (and some doctors too) – Sophie would have absolutely loved it! Plus, Raymond and Emil enclosed this flier in each program when Alvin Ailey performed at UNC on April 22 and 23, 2014.
East Chapel Hill High School Dance Ensemble
East Ensemble dancers, many of whom danced with Sophie, decided to take up a collection at their spring dance performance and raised more than $500. Awesome! And a huge thanks to Sarah Dwyer for pulling this together.
Rachel Holtzman Birthday Tribute
Rachel, a former student of Niklaus’, decided to ask family and friends to donate to Be Loud Sophie Foundation in place of birthday gifts. She also got her UNC modern dance company Inversions involved through their spring performance. She set a goal and raised more than $1,350. Now that’s one way to be loud!
Stephen Akin Memorial Tribute
We were deeply moved by Andrea Akin and the Akin family’s support of the Be Loud Sophie Foundation. We are also so grateful for the time we got to spend with Stephen making plans for the foundation, and we’ll always treasure his genuine enthusiasm and kindness. Both Sophie and Stephen were so sincere, so authentic, so loud. Totally unique and totally loved. They showed us all how to be loud!
Bottle Shop at Tyler’s Taproom
Thanks to Tyler Huntington, the Bottle Shop offered a limited edition beer and donated 100% of the proceeds which came to more than $1,200. This man knows his beer and knows how to be loud! Simply awesome.
Life is a Beautiful Thing: A Tribute to Sophie Steiner and her Peers
A moving exhibit of Sophie’s photographs and artwork from her peers ran at the Carrboro Branch Library from January 16th through March 31st. The Durham Herald-Sun ran a story about the exhibit.
Hava Nagila (The Movie)
It was Sophie’s idea to organize a screening of this film at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill to raise money for adolescent and young adult cancer patients and their families at UNC Hospitals. While she never had the opportunity to realize her vision, her wish was fulfilled on January 30th when a sold out audience gathered to watch this informative and entertaining documentary created by Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain, Sophie’s namesake, family friend and advisory board member. The film made us laugh and cry, and got us thinking about why we dance despite the sorrow of life. Thanks to the generosity of all who attended, we raised more than $5,000 that night.
Syd’s Hair Shop
Sophie got her awesome haircuts from Cinnamon who works at Syd’s Hair Shop. The shop subsequently did a one day fundraiser for us and raised over $2,000.
