(Courtesy photo by MARK STERN) Several members of Aces & Eights, including Jim Hinkle, left, Roger Haas, guitarist Dave West, right, and lead singer Buddy Bernard, play one of their classic songs at a recent concert. The band will perform at a Nashua Children's Home fundraiser Aug. 27.

Medical issues, some of them pretty serious at that, weren’t about to stop – maybe slow up a little, but not stop – Lou Duhamel from putting together the second of what is hoped to be an annual event to benefit a Nashua agency that means the world to Duhamel.

Last year’s debut event, which came to be named the Nashua Children’s Home Barbecue Benefit Bash, wasn’t just successful, it ended up blowing the doors off the goal of $10,000 that Duhamel set.

Once all the raffle proceeds, ticket sales and the plethora of general donations were tallied, the bash raised just shy of $22,000 – more than double Duhamel’s goal.

To be sure, the planning process for this year’s event got off to a slow start because of Duhamel’s various medical issues. But once he looked around and realized how many friends were stepping up to carry a share of the load, a needed sense of optimism set in, prompting him to set a goal of $25,000.

Ambitious, yes, but it’s definitely a reachable goal, especially considering a couple of new additions have been made to the lineup.

(Courtesy of WWW.MIKEKCOMIC.COM) Comedian Mike Koutrobis is scheduled to perform at the Nashua Children's Home Barbecue Benefit Bash in August at Alpine Grove.

One is the barbecue part – both chicken and ribs are on this year’s menu, along with cornbread and “all the fixings,” Duhamel said.

Then comes the main raffle, “which will be better than ever this year,” he predicts.

One of the two major new wrinkles is a performance by well-known comedian Mike Koutrobis, who moved to Nashua as a child and has worked stints as a professional clown and a karaoke performer and announcer before becoming a stand-up comedian, a talent that has taken him to major venues such as Dangerfield’s and Gotham in New York City, others in Boston, Atlantic City and Foxwoods and Mohegan casinos.

By then it should be nice and dark, setting the stage for the second major wrinkle: a fireworks display, put on by Atlas, based right here in New Hampshire.

And what could be better than fireworks to usher in the showcase performance of the evening – especially when that performance will be Nashua’s legendary and favorite band, Aces & Eights?

(Courtesy of WWW.MIKEKCOMIC.COM) Comedian Mike Koutrobis, who will appear at the Nashua Children's Home Barbecue Benefit Bash in August at Alpine Grove, performs at the Laugh Boston club in this photo from his Website.

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IF YOU GO

Although relegated to the sidelines for months with serious health issues, Nashua resident Lou Duhamel is getting back in the swing by making sure the second annual Nashua Children’s Home Barbecue Benefit Bash fundraiser is at least as successful as was last year’s inaugural event.

WHEN: Saturday, Aug. 27, 5-11 p.m. Lineup: Barbecue from 6-7:30 p.m.; Raffle for Children’s Home; comedian Mike Koutrobis; legendary band Aces & Eights.

WHERE: Alpine Grove, 19 S. Depot Road, Hollis

HOW MUCH: $60 per person

TICKETS: Call 305-2841. Deadline to purchase tickets is Aug. 21

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As for the assistance Duhamel said he’s received, much of it was geared toward “helping me out with tickets, posters, advertising and collecting raffle prizes, which I pretty much did on my own last year,” he told me the other day.

“Amazing” is how Duhamel sums up the help put forth by Jen Lapierre, without whom, he said, “I would not have been able to get this done.”

David and Susan Theriault have been “tremendous,” Duhamel said, adding that he’s known David “since the beginning of time.”

Also on his list of thank-you notes (or emails or texts) are Scott Barrett, local estate-sale baroness Patty Ledoux, businessman Nick Tamposi (“without Nicky I probably would have raised only half of what we did last year and he’s right back at it this year,”) car dealer Vince Tulley, Bob and Ed from Masi plumbing and heating, and longtime friends Maynard Simoneau, Mark Prolman, Deb Nash and Jeff Lynch.

“An amazing journey” is how Duhamel described working closely with Lori Wilshire, the longtime business manager for the Nashua Children’s Home, in organizing the first two bashes.

A portion of the proceeds from last year’s bash went toward funding the NCH’s transitional living program, which serves residents who have turned 21 and have therefore “aged out” of the general program.

Duhamel, meanwhile, said his inspiration to undertake the often demanding, frequently exhausting process of putting together fundraisers is rooted in his deep sense of gratitude.

“My community has been so good to me … really helped me out when I needed it,” he said, referring to some of the challenges life dealt him over the years. Certainly high on the list of the most formidable challenges Duhamel has encountered – and conquered – are the health issues that he worried would set him back in the planning process for the Barbecue Benefit Bash as he lay in the hospital, then in physical therapy and rehab, up until just recently.

“It should be a very exciting, fun-filled event – I hope,” Duhamel quipped.

Well, let’s see – a barbecue, a comedian, a fireworks show, an Aces & Eights gig, and the opportunity to contribute to an agency that gives so many kids and youths a hand up when it’s needed – how can it not be “a very exciting, fun-filled event?”

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears weekly in The Sunday Telegraph. He may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.