Coalition Hosts Love 146 Concert

In 2002, when Rob Morris and a legion of other co-founders traveled to Southeast Asia to try and combat child sex trafficking, they witnessed first-hand the horrors of living as a sex slave.

“We found ourselves standing shoulder to shoulder with predators in a small room, looking at little girls through a pane of glass. All of the girls wore red dresses with a number pinned to their dress for identification.” said Morris on the Love146 website.

“They sat, blankly watching cartoons on TV. They were vacant, shells of what a child should be. There was no light in their eyes, no life left. Their light had been taken from them. These children were raped each night, seven, 10, 15 times every night. They were so young. Thirteen, 11 it was hard to tell. Sorrow covered their faces with nothingness. Except one girl. One girl who wouldn’t watch the cartoons. Her number was 146. She was looking beyond the glass. She was staring out at us with a piercing gaze. There was still fight left in her eyes. There was still life left in this girl….”

Students made various posters to advertise for the concert.

Morris and his three other co-founders, Lamont Hiebert, Desirea Rodgers and Caroline Hahm, renamed the organization to Love146 after witnessing the girl with 146 pinned to her dress. Now, the entire organization and concerts center around the idea of girl 146, and their goal to stop sex trafficking around the world.

Love146 is a charity that helps prevent sex trafficking all around the world, with a small portion of their proceeds coming from the concert held at Shawnee Mission East. Seventy one percent of Love146’s budget goes to programs, 15 percent to fundraising, and 14 percent to operations, management and general. The concert was started in 2009, by East alumni Sarah Are and Jessie Light, and is continued now by the Coalition club.

“Love146 was a cause that I was really passionate about,” Are said in a previous article. “So I really wanted to see our community learn about the issue and support efforts to combat human trafficking.”

The concert will be held on Thurs. February 19, for the seventh year straight at the Village Presbyterian Church Youth Loft from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

“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 previously. “Life is short, we have to do what we can while we can.”