High School teacher diagnosed with lung cancer hosting songwriter’s night fundraiser

Stephen Huff is a former pro athlete and, by all accounts, lives a healthy lifestyle. That, however, did not stop him from being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer on June 1, 2017. Huff is a high school teacher at Centennial High School, and is a former Thompson’s Station resident.

A non-smoker, Huff decided he wanted to find a way to bring awareness to lung cancer and remove the negative stigma surrounding the disease. His first thought was to create a specialty license plate in Tennessee, but to do so there are several steps. One of those steps is to have an initial order for the plates already purchased.

That’s when The Huff Project started, as a way to be transparent with donors’ money.

“We wanted to have a specialty license plate for lung cancer awareness. We started The Huff Project as a way to be as open and transparent as we could about what we were doing with donations,” he said.

Since then, Huff decided that license plates were simply a way to raise money, and wanted to branch out with fundraising.

“In doing this project, we wanted to see what else we could do because the license plate is just a means to a bigger goal, which is to raise awareness and research dollars for lung cancer,” he said. “We started to think outside the box, and wonder what else we could do to raise money, and that’s where we came up with these ideas like our songwriter night and golf tournament in November.”

The Huff Project put together a songwriter’s night at The Factory at Franklin held on Oct. 10. What started as a small idea quickly turned into a large event hosting some of Nashville’s biggest hit-makers.

“That just fell into our laps. I was fortunate enough to grow up in the Middle Tennessee area, and if you’ve lived here long enough, you’ve come across someone who moved here to be a songwriter,” Huff said.

Among those people is Huff’s high school sports teammate Randy Montana. Randy’s father, Billy, has been writing songs in Nashville for more than 20 years. Billy penned hits for Jo Dee Messina (“Bring on the Rain”), Sara Evans (“Suds in the Bucket”) and Garth Brooks (“More than a Memory”). Randy has had songs cut by artists such as George Strait, Cole Swindell, Justin Moore and Jon Pardi.

Huff is also fortunate to have a sister-in-law whose uncle is Tony Lane. Lane has composed hits for Tim McGraw (“I Need You”), George Strait (“Run”), John Michael Montgomery (“Letters from Home”), among many other cuts.

“When we were thinking about this originally, we thought we’d do it Bluebird style where we have three or four people playing an hour set,” Huff said. “It’s now blossomed into this really huge thing where Billy and Randy (Montana) and (Lane) reached out to their network of friends who were more than happy to come play for our cause.”

Those friends are Erin Enderlin (“Monday Morning Church”), Wynn Varble (“Have You Forgotten”), David Lee (“19 Somethin’”), Jeremy Bussey (“Girl Goin’ Nowhere”), Marti Dodson (“Girl Next Door”), Bridgette Tatum (“She’s Country”) and Wade Hayes (“On a Good Night”).

In addition to the songwriters sharing their songs, the non-profit will have a number of items up for a silent auction, and Huff hopes the event will be fun for those in attendance.

“Initially, we wanted to do a small concert where we sold some General Admission seating, but when we started to dive into the planning, we realized there was more we could bring to the event to make it more fun,” he said. “We will have a silent auction, where we have some really great items for sale, including a signed Vince Gill and Amy Grant guitar.

“At the end of the day, yes we are raising money, but we want those who come to have an experience they remember for a lifetime, and will make them want to come back year after year.”

The concert is $30 per ticket, and can be purchased here.

Next month, the organization is hosting a golf tournament at The Hermitage Golf Course in Old Hickory on Nov. 2, which was rated the state’s top public course by Golf Digest. The cost is $150 per player or $600 per foursome. The scramble’s registration begins at 9:30 a.m. with a shotgun start at 11 a.m.

Huff said the support he’s received has been completely overwhelming.

“We’ve had such an outpouring of love and support from not only our family and friends, but our community,” he said. “Just to see the support and the community wrap their arms around us, supporting us financially and as we advocate for lung cancer research.”