Beatlemania invades Oceanside

Last weekend, the Beatles invaded Oceanside.

Well, it was really just a Beatles cover-band, Strawberry Fields, but none of the hundreds of people in attendance could really tell the difference.

The concert was held to benefit the Susan Satriano Foundation, which is run by Joe Satriano. Susan was Joe’s wife of 29 years who died of breast cancer in 2005. A year later, Joe started the foundation in her honor. Since then, the Susan Satriano Foundation has given away $50,000 in scholarships to 53 students.

“These are kids who have to meet three requirements: they have to be a graduating senior, they have to be going to an accredit college in the fall, the kicker, unfortunately, is that they have to have a parent who passed away from cancer or is currently battling it,” Joe Satriano said.

Satriano had seen Strawberry Fields perform a number of times at B.B. King’s Bluesville in New York City. “They’re very personable guys. They come out at the end of the show and they talk, so I started telling them about my book and the foundation,” Satriano said. “And they took a liking to the foundation and what it does, and at a recent time I was there, I think it was January, they called me backstage and said they would love to do a benefit concert for the foundation.”

According to Satriano, he was only 24 tickets away from selling out the Oceanside High School auditorium, where the concert was held. He estimates the foundation raised between $20,000 and $25,000, all of which will go back into Oceanside in the form of scholarships.

“The community really came together,” Satriano said. “My feet still haven’t quite touched the ground.”

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