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FOCUS: Sibling revelry, twins behind Gone Country concert in Cloverdale

Photo by Angela Waterberg/Blush Photography (www.Photosbyblush.com)

The following story first appeared in the summer 2014 edition of Look magazine, published by the Now

CLOVERDALE — For two siblings who have geographically placed themselves more than a few hours apart, twins Chris and Jamie Rucheinski are as close as ever — even if, at times, they don’t want to be.

All year, they plan their annual cancer fundraiser, Gone Country, living as if in a tale of two cities: Chris in Victoria, where he markets for well-known energy-drink company, Red Bull, and Jamie in Langley, running his real estate business The Property Twins.

“There’s a lot less fist fights now,” Jamie says about his brother, who’s been living on Vancouver Island for the past three years.

“Now we just hang up on each other,” Chris says with a laugh. “We’re still brothers. It doesn’t get to fists anymore, but we’re still definitely brothers.”

When the Rucheinski’s mom was diagnosed with breast cancer around the year 2000, the boys decided to do something about it by hosting a raffle and a fundraiser in the form of a backyard barbecue. The result? Three-hundred people in the Rucheinski’s backyard, more than a few hangovers and a whopping $20,000 to prove that it happened.

“What we’ve done in the past is started out doing little fundraisers at nightclubs with friends of ours and then that grew into backyard barbeques, and that grew into having 300 people in my dad’s backyard, so we decided to change venues,” Chris says of the event, which saw more than 3,000 people last year at the Cloverdale's Millennium Amphitheatre (since renamed Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre).

“This year, we’re selling 6,000 tickets, so it went from a little backyard barbecue to this giant event where it takes us about nine months to get to the actual event.”

(Scroll to bottom of this page to see video of Aaron Pritchett singing "Hold My Beer" at last year's Gone Country event)

While this year will only be the second year of the event known as Gone Country, Jamie attests that the fundraisers have been around for 13 years.

“We started this when our mom passed away, about 12 or 13 years ago now, just raising money. We started throwing parties and raising money, and then we’ve grown since,” Jamie says. “Then we lost our best friend Shaun G (cancer victim Shaun Gauthier), and one of the last things he said to us was, ‘We’re going to throw one hell of a fundraiser this year,’ and unfortunately he didn’t survive cancer.”

Now, money raised from the annual event goes to help charities like the BC Cancer Agency, Canadian Cancer Society, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, Easter Seals centres and also contributes to a scholarship program for students at UBC studying oncology.

“We’re getting a little more polished at this, too. Originally we showed up at the Canadian Cancer Society with a shoebox of $22,000 cash,” Chris says with a chuckle.

Far from collecting cash in a shoebox, now the Rucheinskis gather sponsorship from local country radio station JR FM, Whistler Brewing Co., Sammy J Pepper’s, Promosa and Vancouver Urban Winery — just to name a few.

Fundraising and beer drinking aside, where does country music step in? Well, growing up in Cloverdale, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t like country, and among the hordes of Merle Haggard and JR FM fans alike was the Rucheinskis’ mom.

 â€œ[Chris] never wanted to do country, he’s a Victoria hipster,” Jamie says, poking fun at his brother, “but I do and we’ve always kind of listening to country growing up — it caters to all audiences. We wanted to cover something that would be enjoyable for anyone over 19 to my 87-year-old grandma who will be there drinking wine.”

 â€œOur mom loved country,” Chris says emphatically. “I guess I’ve got my finger on the pulse with (the music) world, when it came to country music, though, it was a bit of a switch up for me so I had to learn the country music scene — let’s put it that way. I’ve bought a few albums, that’s for sure.”

From booze sponsors, to designers, to the clean-up crew, everything surrounding Gone Country and its efforts are volunteer-run. Jamie’s fiancé, Angela Waterberg of Blush Photography, signed on to do photography for the duo when she met the twins.

“She’s volunteered for life, now,” Jamie teases.

“There isn’t one thing that you see at any of our events that we haven’t haggled to get down to almost nothing. People know now that if they pick up the phone and it’s one of us calling, they’re like, ‘Oh, here it comes,’” Chris says. 

“Our volunteers are really what keeps us motivated to do this. They show up every year, they work their ass off, they never complain, they generally have a good time and without them, none of this would happen. So that’s definitely the biggest motivating factor.”

Gone Country takes on at least 60 volunteers, and that’s not including the mandatory security, police officers and first-aid.

This year’s Gone Country features performances by Chad Brownlee, Brett Kissell, Karen Lee Batten and more, and takes place July 26 at Cloverdale’s Bill Reid Millennium Amphitheatre. Doors open at 2 p.m. Tickets are $35 and can be bought at Twinscancerfundraising.com. Because of beer and wine served, the event is 19+.

Related stories:

'Gone Country' headliner Brownlee is a man on move

Gone Country rocked Cloverdale in 2013 with Aaron Pritchett, Dallas Smith