For the third year in a row, Elon University’s six a cappella groups will join together for a singing extravaganza to benefit sick children.
On Saturday, Feb. 20, the coed a cappella group Vital Signs will host the Make-A-Wish benefit concert. The concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. in Whitley Auditorium, and all of the proceeds will go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation to help fund more “wishes” for children in need.
The Make-A-Wish Foundation’s goal is to grant wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. The “wishes” are used to enrich the lives of sick children and their families with hope and strength and give them an experience apart from hospital visits and treatment.
For example, Make-A-Wish will fund trips to various amusement parks, bring the children to meet their favorite celebrities or help them create giving-back projects of their own.
This event is important to Vital Signs on an emotional level as well. The benefit concert is dedicated to and put on in honor of the sister of a Vital Signs alumnus. The honoree, Bella Elder, is a leukemia survivor who received a trip to Disney World from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
All of the proceeds from the concert will specifically go to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation chapter of Central and Western North Carolina.
All six Elon a cappella groups were invited to perform in the concert. Vital Signs also reached out to a cappella groups from other colleges in North Carolina, asking them to perform for students and families who have benefited from the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
The groups that are set to perform include Smooth Progressions, Shirley Tempos, Rip_Chord, Sweet Signatures, Twisted Measure, Plead the Fifth from Wake Forest University and the hosts, Vital Signs.
“I love the Vital Signs Make-A-Wish concert, because it brings all the groups together and we get to hear how everyone sounds while performing for a great cause,” said junior Andrew Mesrobian, a member of Rip_Chord.
There is rarely an opportunity like this to see more than one a cappella group perform at the same concert for charity. Each group will perform two to three of their own arrangements.
To grant a “wish,” the concert has to raise about $5,000. But the Vital Signs fundraising page, there has already raised more than $600 in donations toward making a child’s dream come true.
“This is personally my favorite event Vital Signs puts on, because we are given the opportunity to share our gifts of singing to be part of writing a bigger story,” said sophomore Blair Foreman, a member of Vital Signs. “We have the honor of helping grant a wish to a family.”
The Make-A-Wish Foundation gives sick children the opportunity to have experiences that they otherwise might not have.
The Central and Western North Carolina chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation recently granted the wish of a 10-year-old boy who wanted to go behind the scenes of his favorite television show, “The Price is Right,” and met the host, Drew Carey.
Vital Signs wants to contribute as much as they can to this cause to grant a “wish” to enrich the lives of a sick child and his or her family.
Tickets, available for pre-sale at Moseley Center, are $5 for students and $7 for non-students or $7 for students and $10 for non-students at the door. Donations can also be make by visiting the Vital Signs profile on the Make-A-Wish website.