Rep Ya School: Local Concert Featuring East Bands

“Rep Ya School,” a concert benefiting the charity Variety KC, will be held March 31 at 6:30 at the Gem Theater.

It will have seven acts from the Kansas City area performing, including two bands from East: Orlo and The Whips.

The concert aims to raise money for the charity Variety KC, which helps to fund the needs of the individuals dealing with disabilities — their goal is $5,000. The funds raised could be used to buy hearing aids, wheelchairs or communication devices for children who cannot speak, all dependent on the specific needs of the Variety kids.

Deborah Wiebrecht, Variety’s executive director, sees the kids they help as children with unique needs based on their specific issues.

“Our whole purpose is to help a variety of children with a variety of needs,” Wiebrecht said. “Any child with any disability is a Variety child.”

The children helped by Variety will attend the concert, according to Wiebrecht, and they can’t wait to dance to the live music.

Pembroke senior Olivia Sabates put together the concert. Sabates has volunteered with Variety KC and attended their events for over five years. Now, she gets to be the one holding an event in honor of them.

Sabates first sang at a Variety event when she was 12 and has worked with them ever since. She’ll be performing again at the concert five years later.

“I just remember dancing with the kids from Variety at that event,” Sabates said. “It’s just fulfilling to know that they’re doing such great work at Variety and these kids are really benefiting from it.”

The band Orlo, which includes East seniors, got involved in the concert when Sabates contacted their drummer, Rockhurst senior Henry Freeman. They perform for audiences often, having last performed at the Coalition Love Concert.

Senior Gray Warner, bass player for Orlo, loves playing in front of an audience with their band.

“It’s just a lot of fun since we’re all close buddies,” Warner said. “Just to go up in front of an audience and perform.”

The Whips will perform at the concert as well and have been performing for audiences for over two years now.

Sabates chose this concert as a way not only to help a charity, but also to feature all of the undiscovered talent of Kansas City.

According to Sabates, they wanted the event to be a place where all are welcome and bring in as many as they can as the space holds up to 500 people.

“There’s a lot of things that young teenagers can’t go to because of age restrictions,” Sabates said. “So we were like wouldn’t it be cool to have an event where anyone can go to showcase talent in KC and also benefit a charity at the same time.”