We’ve seen Canadian and U.S. celebrity-led telethons for Haiti relief — now here’s a local effort.
A Red Deer high school band called Freedom in Pieces will perform a live benefit concert at the Deer Park Alliance Church at 7 p.m. on Friday. During the event, the band will sell $2 CDs of a song called Pray for a Better Place that encourages people to donate money to relief efforts in the earthquake ravaged country.
The $5 admission to the concert will be donated directly to Haiti relief, said Bevan Falkenberg, a guitarist for Freedom in Pieces.
The benefit, which also features other local bands, including Our Side and Shift, was conceived after Falkenberg and his fellow group members viewed televised images of injured, destitute people in the wreckage of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
“We watched the Hope for Haiti Canada and U.S. telethons, and we saw, pretty much, how devastating it was. We thought if something like that happened to us, we would want other people to help us as much as they can too,” Falkenberg said.
Proceeds from the Friday night concert were always pegged for some kind of charity, he added, so when group members suggested Haitian people should benefit, church officials agreed.
The band Freedom in Pieces was started two years ago by four students from Hunting Hills High School. The group’s keyboardist, Devon Lynn, has since graduated, but lead vocalist Kayla Mckinney and Falkenberg are still in Grade 12, and bassist/lead guitarist Marc Kitteringham is in Grade 11.
The group plays what Falkenberg describes as “acoustic indie rock,” although the song Pray for a Better Place also has a folk music sound. He added Freedom in Pieces is in the process of creating a first multi-song CD.
To hear Pray for a Better Place online, visit www.myspace.com/freedominpieces2010
lmichelin@www.reddeeradvocate.com