By now, everyone in the world is aware of the events that took place this past Friday, November 13th in Paris, France. At approximately 9:30 PM local time, 3 groups of assailants, who are now known to be linked to ISIS, armed with assault rifles and bombs launched attacks on multiple locations throughout Paris. One of the locations hardest hit was a music venue called Bataclan where American rock band Eagles of Death Metal were performing to a sold out crowd. The gunmen entered the venue from the front doors and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd. The massacre quickly turned into a hostage situation that lasted several hours until Parisian police were able to gain entrance to the venue and kill the assailants.
The attacks killed 129 people and injured 352 more. Eighty-nine of those deaths occurred inside Bataclan. Among the dead is Nick Alexander who was the merch manager for Eagles of Death Metal. Alexander had previously run merch tables for bands like Alice in Chains and the Black Keys and was, by all accounts, a great person. A day after the tragedy a GoFundMe page was set up by a friend of Alexander's named Miguel Benavides. All proceeds from the Go Fund Me drive will go Alexander's family and so far nearly $60,000 has been raised.
The point of this article isn't to highlight the death of one person over so many others, it's to provide people who want to help with a way to do that. It's easy to feel helpless in the face of an atrocity like this, but you can still do something. Thousands and thousands of people have had their lives shattered over the course of a few hours. Please consider donating to a worthy cause that will help out a few people who were affected. The rock and metal communities have always prided themselves on looking out for each other, and now is your chance to do that.
Follow this link to donate to Nick Alexander's Go Fund Me campaign.
