Kappa Delta Sham-Rocks for a good cause

By Kathryn Locke

December 6, 2007 | Beethoven once said, "Music can change the world." Last month, around 200 students and community members gathered in the Taggart Student Center International Sunburst Lounge to do just that.

Sham-Rock the Cause was a benefit concert put on by the Kappa Delta sorority to raise money for Prevent Child Abuse America. Each chapter of the sorority nationwide must hold one charity event annually, and because it must be completed by March, it was dubbed the "shamrock" event.

The Beta Delta chapter of Kappa Delta at Utah State University elected two co-chairs, to plan the event. The co-chairs decided this year to break from the USU mold of the past and hold a benefit concert for their big event.

The concert on Nov. 17 featured five artists who played a variety of music from the rock style of Abomni and Bring the Gallows to the Indie music of Reign Over Ruins and the acoustic folk tunes played by Milk-Carton Masquerade and Isaac Hayden.

Volunteers from the sorority roamed around in matching green T-shirts selling popcorn, water bottles and raffle tickets or making announcements in between each band.Tickets for the event were $5, with all proceeds going to the cause. Through ticket purchases and local business donations, Kappa Delta was able to raise nearly $4,000.

Eighty percent of the money raised stayed in Cache Valley and was donated to the Child and Family Support Center in Logan. The other 20 percent went nationwide to Prevent Child Abuse America, a non-profit organization that researches solutions to child abuse and provides healthy, safe environments to neglected or abused children.

Featured artist Issac Hayden said, "Some people say that money makes the world go round. I think music transcends money and so many other things. The power of music reaches past the superficial and has the power to change lives, in the deepest sense. It has certainly changed mine."

Hayden said he has played the guitar for more than seven years and has been performing for a little over two years. He began with a friend who would play the guitar while he sang, but he "wanted to make music all the time." And because his friend wasn't always around, he decided to teach himself the guitar.

Hayden went on tour with Cary Judd around the west coast. "He took me under his wing for a bit," says Hayden of Judd, "and the last few years I've been all over the country playing solo and with a band… That is, more or less, the evolution of how I came to be here now."

Hayden says many different things inspire his music, "Life. People. Pain. Joy. There is inspiration all around us, but we have to take the time and apply our imagination to see it. I think life experience, allowing yourself to really feel something and learn from a situation is the best inspiration of all."

Adam Lowry, another solo artist for Sham-Rock the Cause who performs under the name Milk-Carton Masquerade, expressed similar feeling to the inspiration behind his music. "My inspiration comes from real life experiences andemotions. Every single one of my songs comes from inside me," he said.

Lowry not only opened the night with his solo act, he also plays guitar for the Salt Lake based band Reign Over Ruins. Lowry said"The reason I [also] play solo is because it is a direct channel into what I feel. There is no outside influence to change the feel or idea of a song like there is with a band." Lowry has been playing for seven years and has been writing music for nearly six. He said he knew Sham-Rock was going to be more of a "mature show and wanted to play it for the experience."

He went on to say that as time went on, he liked the idea of playing to raise money for those less fortunate than him and found it was "quite rewarding to know that [Reign Over Ruins] helped contribute to an antidote to the spreading plague of child abuse."

"If I had the chance to do it again, I'd make sure everyone I know was there. The best way to fight something is to make those who are unaware of it informed and I feel we did that," Lowry concluded.

The Drummer of Reign Over Ruins, 19-year-old Jordan Draper, said "Music is an inspiring and delightful thing; I'm just trying to do my part to keep that idea alive . . . I hope more people and musicians will live up to the challenge of doing what is right, and take things seriously. Child abuse is no joke, and anything we can do to fight it is OK in my book."

CJ
CJ