Concert raises money to send Jasper youth on volunteer trip

Last weekend’s concert at the McCready Centre raised over $1,500 to help send a group of six young women to Kenya to build a schoolhouse next summer.

“Not as many people showed up as we would have liked, but we sold 83 tickets and the music was great,” said Eman Ismaeil, 16, one of the youth going on the trip. The night’s lineup included Crowded City Skyline, Lyrical Attitude and Right Right Now, Jordan Strand, Jordan Norman, Jessica Heine and Branded Oak.

The organizers covered the bands’ fuel expenses and local hotels donated rooms for their stay, but otherwise the musicians played free of charge. “The bands were really nice and really into our project and our cause,” Ismaeil said. “I don’t think they minded there wasn’t that many people there, they were just happy to help out and thought it was really cool we were going over there to do that.”

In addition to Ismaeil, Paula Ermet, 18, Melanie Frigon, 18, Clara Waxer, 17, Carly Charlebois, 16, and Theresa Westhaver, 15, form the rest of the group heading to Africa with Free the Children, a charitable organization that aims to stosp child labour through education. 

In Kenya, they will build a schoolhouse “from the ground up,” Ismaeil said. “From what we’ve seen there are kids that go to school but they sit outside and have no school supplies.”

It will cost each girl $7,000 to go on the volunteer trip, and they must cover what they don’t fundraise. They’re aiming to collect $12,000, which would leave the young women to fork over $5,000 each. Their fees are due in March, 100 days before they leave for 20 days in July.

The concert was one of the group’s major fundraising initiatives of the summer. They are working on plans to hold a barbecue over the Labour Day long weekend after collecting over $1,200 between two barbecues earlier on in the season.

Ismaeil said they appreciate all the help the group is getting, as going to Kenya will be a great experience. “We really need the community support otherwise it’s going to be really tough to get there,” she said.