How Alice and Sheryl Cooper made helping Arizona teens their Christmas tradition

Alice Cooper is coming off his most successful Christmas Pudding yet.

The 21st annual holiday concert sold out the Celebrity Theatre in 36 hours and raised more than $2 million to fund the free after-school programs in music, art and dance at Cooper's Solid Rock Teen Centers in Phoenix and Mesa.

“It was unbelievable,” Cooper says.

In addition to money raised through ticket sales, the concert, which took place Dec. 9 with guests including Sammy Hagar, Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson, Quiet Riot and Tommy DeCarlo of Boston, includes a series of live auctions, in which one supporter paid 100 grand to have his face included in a “family portrait” with Cooper and Hagar.

A Pudding regular donated $1 million during something called a paddle call, where guests are asked to raise a paddle if they'd like to donate at various levels, starting with a relatively low donation.

And the organizers managed to line up more sponsors than ever.

“We’re sitting there and money is just pouring in,” Cooper says, “which means to me we need to open more and more of these teen centers.”

The first Solid Rock Teen Center opened in 2012 on the corner of Thunderbird Road and 32nd Street in Phoenix after more than a decade of fundraising, primarily through Christmas Pudding and spring golf events.

In 2021, a second center opened in a former elementary school at 122 N. Country Club Drive in downtown Mesa.

In 2024, the concept will expand into Goodyear, where a third teen center will be housed inside a former library on Van Buren Street just west of Litchfield Road.

That center will be largely funded through a $1 million donation from the Norelli Family Foundation, which co-presented this year’s Pudding with the Robb Family Foundation.

“Building these centers is something we know how to do now,” Cooper says. “I’m a rock singer. I didn’t know how to do this at first. But we learned. And now, we’re really good at it.”

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The mission of the centers is “to provide an alternative to what’s on the street,” Cooper says.

“I think every kid’s got talent. You just have to mine it. Pretty soon, they’re in here every day at 3. Because they found something they love to do. And that gets them away from what’s on the street, which is usually something not very good.”

He's speaking from experience.

“I had two things going on,” he says. “I was on the track and cross country team. And at the same time, we were in the Spiders, playing the VIP Club every weekend. We were the biggest band in town. I didn’t have time to get in trouble.”

Formed at Cortez High School as the Earwigs, Cooper’s teen band would eventually evolve into a group named Alice Cooper that became one of the biggest rock acts of the early ‘70s, driven by anthemic hits that spoke directly to the teen experience, from “I’m Eighteen” to “School’s Out.”

Cooper figures that could be a motivating factor.

“Alice Cooper was born out of teenagers,” he says. “Teenagers came to see Alice Cooper. And to me, the payback is Alice Cooper now goes back and takes care of the teenagers. It was the obvious thing to do.”

It’s not the only factor that inspired Cooper and his wife of 48 years, Sheryl, to become so heavily involved in helping teens.

“This is exactly what God wants me to do,” the singer says. “And Sheryl feels the same way.”

The Solid Rock Foundation was founded in 1995 by the Coopers with their friend and fellow Christian Chuck Savale.

“Everybody on the board is Christian," Cooper says. "But we’re not a church. At all. We’re an organization that tries to get kids off the street and give them a creative outlet.”

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'Christmas Pudding is a hodgepodge of ingredients'

Before he landed on the Christmas Pudding concept, Cooper’s Solid Rock Foundation was already hosting an annual golf tournament to raise funds for other teen charities.

They still do the golf event, but now all proceeds go to Cooper's Solid Rock Teen Centers.

The idea of doing a second event in December “was Alice and Sheryl’s idea,” Jeff Moore, the executive director of the Solid Rock Teen Centers, says. “We were looking for another fundraiser and they said, ‘Listen, this is what we know.’”

The original premise was to make it more of a variety show, with magicians, comedians, dancers and a broader assortment of musical guests than one might necessarily associate with Cooper.

“Christmas pudding is a hodgepodge of ingredients,” Moore says. “That’s why we named it that.”

The first few times they did it, Cooper says, “We spent too much money on the Pudding and we’d only make a little bit. But pretty soon, we learned.”

It wasn’t long before those Pudding concerts started making money.

“Now, it’s like a flood,” he says.

Opening that first teen center was a major turning point.

“Before that, you were kind of just selling a dream,” Moore says. “And that’s a tough sell. You can do it for a while. Then people go, ‘We need the center.’”

With a third teen center on the way, Moore feels they may see even more support in coming years.

“I think success breeds success,” he says.

“As people see we’re opening more centers and have an opportunity to reach more kids, and you hear the stories of what’s happening in kids’ lives, it makes people say, ‘We want to be involved in something positive that’s having an effect.’”

'I never had any aim in life ... until this place gave me an outlet'

Jameson Houston started going to the Solid Rock Teen Center at 12. She’s 17.

“I never had any aim in life, really, until this place gave me an outlet,” she says. “I was super depressed. I hated life. And the people here were a light. I was actually saved because of conversations with volunteers.”

She also learned to play guitar and bass and discovered her voice as a singer. Now she’s hoping to pursue a musical career.

“It’s really like a family,” Houston says.

Marcus Klapacki was born with one arm and has battled cancer and leukemia. He was 12 when he started at the Solid Rock Teen Center, learning drums from Mark Savale, who relearned how to play with one arm so he could teach Klapacki better.

“I definitely would not be nearly at the level I am now without this place," Klapacki says. "As a matter of fact, I just started my own band six months ago, and this is the only place we can practice.”

Cooper has heard countless tales of ways in which his centers have changed lives.

It’s gotten to the point where he’s not sure it even matters who he brings to Christmas Pudding.

“If we had five unnamed acts, they would still come,” he says.

“Because they’re there to support Solid Rock. The fact that they get a great show is secondary to the fact that hopefully it’s become an Arizona tradition.”

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How Alice Cooper made helping teens his Christmas tradition