On March 7, East students will come together for this year’s Coalition-sponsored Love146 concert. This is the concert’s fourth year; every year the concert is organized by Coalition and features multiple student performers.The Love146 concert was started in 2009 by East alumni Sarah Are and Jessie Light, who wanted to host a benefit concert. Are and Light founded Coalition at East after hearing about Shawnee Mission Northwest’s club.According to their website, Love146 is a charity that “works toward the abolition of child trafficking and exploitation through prevention and aftercare solutions while contributing to a growing abolition movement.” In short, Love146 is working towards abolishing slavery around the world.
“Love146 was a cause that I was really passionate about,” Are said. “So I really wanted to see our community learn about the issue and support efforts to combat human trafficking.”
The first year of the concert, they decided to hold it in February around the time of Valentine’s Day, so they could stick with a “love” theme.Love146 was started in March 2004 under the name Justice for Children Intl. by Rob Morris, Lamont Hiebert, Desirea Rodgers and Caroline Hahm. In 2007, they renamed the charity to Love146 after a child sex slave they encountered in Southeast Asia with the number 146 who still looked hopeful. Senior Helena Buchmann and a leadership board comprised of five other Coalition members have planned this year’s concert. Although the leadership board has the power to choose a different charity, they decided to keep the tradition of having a Coalition concert.
“It’s kind of just been a tradition we’ve had to donate to them,” Buchmann said. “They’re a reputable organization and they do good work.”
This year, East bands the Mason Pashia Project, Organized Mess, Local Talk, A Gecko Named Terrance, Ebony and Ivory and Emma Meara will be performing. Connor Ehman from Rockhurst and Quinn Cochran from Lincoln High School will also be performing.
“We knew we wanted to do it [again] this year,” senior and Organized Mess member Mark Ronning said. “We played there our sophomore year; we definitely liked it. It was really cool, [and] we love playing for East audiences.”
Like past years, the concert is being held in the Village Presbyterian Church youth loft. In the past, a $5 donation was recommended for those attending the concert, while this year it’s a mandatory entrance fee. However, according to Are, the donations aren’t the most important part about the concert.
“The priority is that for one night, the East community gathers together to stand in support and remembrance for the people in this world who have so much less than us,” Are said. “Life is short, we have to do what we can while we can.”
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