Students organize benefit concert for children in Africa

A group of Grand Valley students are organizing a benefit concert for Poetice International, a non-profit organization that teaches impoverished, orphaned children in Africa inspiration through the arts.

Several groups of Grand Valley students and faculty members will perform, including Voices of GVSU, the local band Dockside Fever, percussion and piano soloists and the university’s trumpet, brass and saxophone ensembles.

Poetice Benefit Concert
Friday, October 21, 7 p.m.
Cook-DeWitt Center, Allendale Campus
Tickets are $5 at the door; all proceeds go to Poetic International

The event was planned and organized by a group of students in a Management 345 Team Building class led by professor Monica Allen. The group was assigned a semester-long project to help develop team skills. The students are Jacob Brower, John White, Lucas Palmer, Patrick Fritz and Kaitlyn DeJonge, who taught at the Poetice International academy last summer in Zambia.

Poetic International supports children in Africa through sponsorship programs, a music academy, youth camps and HIV-prevention and human-trafficking awareness initiatives. “Poetice” is the combination of two words: poetry and justice. 

“Poetice is always looking for funds for new equipment and to help expand and improve their campus and program,” Palmer said. “We believe in their mission and want to provide support for the children they help.”

For more information, contact Lucas Palmer at [email protected]. Learn more about Poetice International at www.poetice.org.