FAIRMONT– The Kids Against Hunger benefit concert, an annual event, will take place at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2 at the Performing Arts Center at Fairmont High School. The concert is being organized by a group of local students.

The theme of this year’s concert is an appropriate quote from Mother Teresa: “If you can’t feed 100, just feed one.”

Fairmont High School juniors Abby Cihoski, Mackenzie Carlson, Anna Ehlert, Anna Busche, Anna Utermarck and Kate Busche are organizing the concert along with help from teacher supervisors Mark Hernes and Molly Bleess.

“Tyson Geerdes did it the last couple of years and once he graduated there was no one really to take over,” Ehlert said.

Geerdes graduated two years ago but the concert wasn’t able to take place last year due to Covid so this year the junior girls stepped up to organize it.

Ehlert said they’ve been planning for the event since November. She said they’ve made and disturbed flyers as well as programs.

“We contacted all the churches in the area to see if they want to do an act or come to the concert with their confirmation classes,” Ehlert said.

Ehlert said they know around 70 to 80 students from St. John Vianney will be at the concert and they’re hopefully some other church groups will comes, well as more students and parents.

The group has also been working on organizing the acts, which include a wide variety. Cihoski said they have seven or eight committed right now but are still looking for more.

“The dance team is doing two dances. Someone is singing and someone is doing a comedy routine. We also have a magician and a group considering doing a glow dance,” Ehlert said.

None of the organizers will be doing an act because they’ll be busy behind scenes managing the stage crew on the night of the concert.

While admission is free to the community, there will be opportunities to donate throughout the night.

“During the concert a few volunteers will be passing around buckets for free-will donations,” Ehlert said.

There will also be T-shirts on sale for $10. Following the concert, a sweet treat of free root beer floats will be available.

“We sent in donation request forms to HyVee, Walmart and Fareway and they all contributed something,” Cihoski said.

Joel Hokanson also made the shirts for the concert at half the cost.

The money being raised will go to Kids Against Hunger. It will be used to support food packs, both locally and regionally. Ehlert said every 25 cents given is a meal.

“The last time they did the concert the donations alone were around $600,” Ehlert said.

In addition to the concert, the annual food pack is coming up on Feb. 12 at the National Guard Armory in Fairmont.