Tom Johnson would have preferred to be in Sierra Leone, volunteering with his charity, Africa Surgery Inc.
But the Morristown man had to settle for the next best thing, performing in a benefit concert at Assumption Church over the Columbus Day weekend.
“I am in contact with my workers in Sierra Leone and plan to remain in the States because the risk of Ebola is so high,” Johnson told the audience.
In a choking voice, he continued: “It is more important for me to raise money to purchase the necessary medical supplies to combat this horrible disease that is taking the lives of many of the friends I have made there.”
The concert, featuring Johnson on the fiddle with the Dicey Riley Irish Band ,and the Randolph High School Chamber Strings Orchestra under the direction of Eric Schaberg, raised $4,000 for medical supplies to aid the stricken West African nation.
For years, Johnson, a former Peace Corps volunteer, has spent six months annually in Sierra Leone, coordinating help for those needing spinal surgeries, hernia operations, and other procedures.
But his program has been interrupted by the Ebola epidemic, which has claimed 1,200 lives and infected almost 3,500 people in Sierra Leone.
Quarantines are in effect and flights between Sierra Leone and the FOCOS Hospital in Ghana, where the surgeries are performed, have been curtailed.
As the death toll rises, governments have discouraged travel to and from West African countries in hopes of halting the spread of the deadly virus.
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