Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: NEWS

Media Credit: Roberto Rodriguez (left to right) Ella Minnow band members Connor Wallace, Josh Kitchens and Trey Price perform at the Arc of Denton benefit concert at the Boiler Room Friday night.

The bands scheduled for the Arc of Denton benefit concert at the Boiler Room performed until the early hours Saturday.
The North Texas Rehabilitation Association organized the event to raise money for an annual trip to Austin that Arc of Denton members make.
Nearly 150 people attended the event and a total of $800 was raised to benefit the Arc of Denton, an organization that helps people with developmental disabilities network with each other and advocate for the rights of disabled people.
While performing the set, the second band of the night, Ella Minnow, reminded the audience of the cause behind the concert and also encouraged audience members to participate in the raffle to raise money for the Arc organization.
The raffle included items from Wik, Starbucks, The Movie Tavern and other businesses that donated to the event.
Ella Minnow also informed concertgoers that 50 percent of the proceeds from its CD and T-shirt sales would also go to the Arc.
"I'm just surprised. Sometimes you get caught up and think that everyone is so apathetic," said Connor Wallace, NT junior and lead singer of Ella Minnow. "It's nice to see that people would come out."
Trey Price, keyboardist of Ella Minnow, said he thought the performance was more than just playing music.
Price said he played the event "to actually be doing good with it and helping somebody else out, even though we're all broke and college students, but we're helping people that really need it."
The Arc of Denton promoted the event with flyers and word-of-mouth, but some audience members said they did not know about the cause for the show.
"It's Friday night, I wanted to get out, loosen up," Houston sophomore Ryan Torres said. "I just wanted to hear some good music."
He said friends and band members of Captain Gallagher, which also performed, told him about the concert.
Torres said he was unaware that the event was a benefit concert, but said it was nice to know it helped someone.
Sharon Ben-Aharon, president of the North Texas Rehabilitation Association, said the event went better then she originally thought and door revenues doubled what she originally expected.
The association expected to make $500, or about 25 percent of the total cost of a trip Ben-Aharon said.
Rehab Association members plan to surprise the Arc of Denton with the money later in February Ben-Aharon said.

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