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Gilbert car show honors fallen local veteran

TRIBUNE NEWS STAFF

The Spencer Calzadilla Car Show & Wellness Expo – a free, familyfriendly event to help Arizona’s active duty and veteran military and frontline responders grappling with PTSD and honoring the memory of Gilbert veteran Spencer Calzadilla – will be held in Gilbert next weekend.

The event will take place at the Gilbert Civic Center, 50 Civic Center Drive, from 4-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 10.

It is hosted by Shields & Stripes, a nonprofit with a mission to help first line defenders heal and live meaningful lives in service to their communities.

“While the mission is serious, the goal is to have fun,” the group said in a release.

Attendees will have a chance to enjoy a car show, which also features eye-catching motorcycles, trucks and bikes. There will also be food trucks, ice cream, cookies, raffles, a DJ and more.

First-line defenders and their loved Gilbert resident Eric Ballester and the rest of the team at the nonprofit Shields & Stripes are holding a family-friendly free car show in Gilbert Saturday. (Special to the Tribune)

ones will also have a chance to receive free health and wellness resources and connect with Shields & Stripes and other community organizations eager to help them.

“We decided to host this event with Spencer’s dad because Spencer was a big car enthusiast,” said Eric Ballester, the event organizer and Shields & Stripes treasurer. Calzadilla, 28, took his life in March because of the debilitating effects of posttraumatic stress.

“We hope this event increases awareness about the effects of PTSD and helps our first-line defenders and their loved ones understand they don’t have to go it alone, there’s help and hope,” Ballester said.

Ballester, of Gilbert, retired from the Air Force in March 2020 after 20 years of service, ending his career at the Joint Special Operations Command, 724th Special Tactics Group as a combat controller.

After graduating high school, he enlisted in the military like all the men in his family.

“Eric’s decision to become a special warfare commando was motivated by his

seeSPENCER page 18

Alice Cooper competition seeks hopefuls

BY ALEX GALLAGHER

Tribune Staff Writer

Applications are open for performers ages 12 to 25 to compete in Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center’s annual music and dance competition.

The winner or winners will receive up to $1,000 cash and the opportunity to open for Alice Cooper and many other celebrity musicians on December 3rd at the annual Christmas Pudding fundraiser concert.

Applications are being accepted until Sept. 16. Not long after that musicians will compete in a series of four gigs spread across four venues and eight nights to determine who is fit to open for the godfather of shock rock at his famous annual concert. “We’ve been a charity for 26 years and the core fundraiser that our nonprofit does is called Christmas Pudding,” said Randy Spencer, a consultant for Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center and head of community partnerships.

“So, we wanted to have an opportunity for the young people at our teen centers and people in the community to possibly perform that event and create some more community awareness for the Christmas pudding fundraiser,” he explained.

seeCOOPER page 18

Applications are being accepted until Sept. 16 to compete for a chance to open for famed shock rocker Alice Cooper at his annual Christmas Pudding show. (Courtesy of

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passion for having the largest impact on the battlefield,” according to the biography on the nonprofit’s website. “His exceptional ability to adapt and overcome and his drive to improve constantly propelled him past his peers resulting in his selection as the 2016 Combat Controller of the Year. His 10 combat deployments were in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and East Africa. During his military career, he earned certifications as a combat controller, Ranger, freefall jumpmaster, Marine combatant diver, static-line jumpmaster, joint terminal attack controller – instructor, air traffic controller and air assault. He earned three 3 Bronze Stars, and Air Force Combat Action Medal, and Army and Air Force commendations. He said he realized that after serving on 10 combat deployments, he had to prioritize his physical and mental health and helped form Shields & Stripes. “I have an extended family that’s guiding me along this pathway to healing and understanding,” said Ballester. “My wife Sandra and I are paying it forward to reach out to other veterans like Spencer, before it’s too late, to make sure they’re getting the care and support we have benefited from so greatly.” Proceeds from the event will fund Shields & Stripes A Hero’s Journey program, which provides customized mental, physical, cognitive and nutritional services to help first-line defenders heal and be their best selves. Car show entries, vendor registration and sponsorship details can be found at tinyurl.com/SpencerCalzadilla. 

COOPER from page 17

Other than age, Spencer says there are no limits to the number of performers who can apply. Past acts have come from as far as North Carolina. “We’re not looking for anyone that’s cute and we’re not looking for anyone that’s only hard rock just because it’s Alice Cooper,” Spencer said. “We’re looking for great entertainers, we’re looking for great musicianship and great positions. That could be in mariachi, it can be in hip hop or it can be in metal, we just want greatness.” Although there are no limits to the types of music and dance that performers can show off, Spencer admits that some common trends emerge among the performers each year. “When you have someone like Ed Sheeran is really big and popular, you get a lot of kids doing loops and things like that and then we also got a lot of kids kind of emulating the Billie Eilish type of style,” Spencer said. “Every year we have R&B, hip hop, EDM, metal and blues, so it’s it is a hybrid of everything, But if Bruno Mars is successful, you’ll see a lot of kids kind of doing the Bruno Mars kind of thing or if Coldplay is successful that year, etc. you see a lot of kids probably emulating that.” The first show is set to take place at Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center in North Phoenix Sept. 27-29. From there, the sound travels to Paradise Valley Community College Oct. 14-15 and with Copper Blues Live at Desert Ridge Marketplace on Oct. 24-25 before concluding at the Mesa Arts Center on Nov. 15. It is at those shows where Spencer says the performers’ nerves usually kick in. “It’s pretty nerve-racking for a lot of these kids, but a lot of these kids are so brave when we see them,” Spencer said. In addition to providing a platform for local youth to show off their musical prowess, Spencer hopes to raise awareness for all of the things that Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Teen Center has to offer. “People need a safe space and a positive space to play and we also want more people to know about our teen center is what we do every day,” he said. Because of this, Spencer added, this is more than just a music competition. “There’s an opportunity to engage with kids year-round and all the kids that are part of the visa competition and they are engaged year-round,” he said. “We do workshops with them throughout the year and jam sessions with a lot of popular musicians, so it’s not only a competition, but it’s truly a community. “We just wanted to create a safe atmosphere that young people who also don’t might get an opportunity to perform at Mesa Art Center at the beginning of your career, or perform at cool venues like Paradise Valley Community College is a beautiful theater and just give them a platform so they can have something positive to do and they can get to know 100 plus other young musicians.”