This evening, Mills Music Hall in the Humanities Building will be filled with excitement as campus groups including Madhatters, Tangled up in Blue, the UW Percussion Ensemble, Dance Elite and the Wisconsin Improv Troupe perform to raise money for victims of the Dec. 26 tsunami in Southeast Asia.
Co-sponsored by the Wisconsin Union Directorate Community Services Committee and the Student Performance Committee, this Tsunami Relief Benefit concert will begin at 7:00 p.m. and last for about two hours.
There will be a $5-10 suggested donation at the door, which according to UW-Madison freshman Rachel Bocek, a member of both sponsoring committees, will go to the International Rescue Committee.
Bocek said after researching several groups, they decided on this one because \they are pretty well-known and they've worked with other natural disasters.""
Heather Killeen, a UW-Madison senior and director of the WUD Community Services Committee explained the concert was initially created to help victims of the hurricanes that passed through Florida. She and another student were brainstorming how to help the victims and the whole concert idea started as a joke but eventually became a reality.
""Over break when the tsunamis hit, we decided to focus our attention on that,"" she said.
Recruiting campus groups to perform at the concert was not a hard task, according to Killeen.
""Everyone was more than willing to do it and they are all donating their time and they're not asking for any compensation at all,"" Killeen said.
Killeen contacted UW-Madison senior and member of Madhatters Tyler Knowles. He said his a cappella group is glad to help out and raise money for relief.
""We didn't hesitate for a second,"" Knowles said. ""Our calendar was clear at that time and even if it hadn't been, I think we would have made room for it.""
Knowles said the a cappella group will perform for about 20 minutes during the concert.
Robin Schmoldt, advisor of the WUD Student Performance Committee, said the committee is also working on a visual display for people to understand the impact of tsunamis.
Schmoldt said it is great to see two committees and numerous student groups coming together for a good cause.
""This campus really does have a heart when it comes to their fellow man,"" she said.
Killeen hopes to have the hall full to its 700-plus person capacity for the concert tonight.
