“The Change,” a philanthropic funk team from Princeton, came to Concord on September 27 to help raise donations for the victims of the recent hurricanes.
Band “The Change” performs at Subway Sides for hurricane relief fundraiser
Photo By Caleb Zopp
The Concord University Flood Relief Concert was organized by University 100 class students as a component of their community service class project aimed towards helping victims of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The concert was free for anyone to attend, but the gathered donations, along with the money collected by the class’s fundraising, will be sent to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
Graci Hodges, University 100 student who came up with the idea of helping the victims of the hurricanes and who contacted The Change, told WVVA that, after seeing the destruction Harvey and Irma caused, she “thought that it was time for people of West Virginia, and our small town, to give a little something back, because it’s the least we could do.”
The Change agreed to help Concord students with fundraising for the cause. “The group is really dedicated to try and help other people with their music,” says the band manager and Stages Music School Director Melissa McKinney. “They all have dreams of playing music for a living, but they want to use their music to help other people as much as they can.”
Currently, The Change has five members – Kayla McKinney, Ary’An Graham, JeDah Palmer, Abigail Belcher, and Jacob Brooks.
Jedah Palmer, the band’s vocalist and rapper, says, “We love doing concerts like this, because we are ‘the Change,’ so we love helping people. That is kind of what we are all about.” Palmer says “The Change” does more charity events than regular shows, because they “would rather do this than do any type of show to make money. This is our favorite thing to do because we just love helping people.”
The band members are a part of a non-profit national organization called “Free2Luv,” which is devoted to enlightening and empowering youth, promoting equality, and spreading kindness. The members travel to schools where they promote anti-bullying and deliver empowerment talks. Helping Concord with this fundraising fits their group’s central philosophy of helping people, says Palmer.
“We’ve just always believed that it’s so important that we use our talents to be able to give back, and a lot of times, we don’t have a lot of money, so our time is what we’re able to give,” McKinney explained to “The Princeton Times.”
Hodges says she felt absolutely thrilled with having The Change at Concord. “Them coming and offering everything free was a blessing. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to work with.”