A band contest planned for Saturday by a group of Palos Heights high schoolers will test the mettle of some local musicians and raise money for causes dear to the teens’ hearts.
The Battle of the Bands at Shepard High School is being organized by students in the school’s 300-member Leo Club, the high school affiliate of Lions Club International.
Entertainment will be provided by six competing bands: Amona, Varuna, Color Blind, The Real Me, Absent and Mad Marble. The top band will win $200, and the second place winner will receive $100.
Funds raised from the event are earmarked for the club’s annual senior citizens dinner dance, to be held Nov. 4 free to Chicagoland seniors, as well as Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs, the American Cancer Society and the Rocky Clark Foundation.
Rasul “Rocky” Clark, a 16-year-old Eisenhower High School student and football player, was paralyzed from the neck down during a football game Sept. 15. The funds will be used to help with his rehabilitation and medical costs.
Mary Renaldi, an English teacher at Shepard who heads the Leo Club, said the event will give something back to the community and show senior citizens, who attend the dinner dance, that youths care about them.
The contest will be held in the gym at Shepard High School, 13049 S. Ridgeland Ave., from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Admission will be $7.
