Show helps benefit anti-bullying club at Jackson High School

The words we use matter, singer Steph Carse told the crowd during an anti-bullying benefit concert Sunday afternoon in Cape Girardeau.

"This show tonight is about words," he said. "Not just how they affect the people around us, but [how they affect] us first."

He, along with the Immaculate Conception Church Choristers and Broken and Redeemed Dance Studio, gathered to benefit Jackson High School's anti-bullying club, Cool Kids Against Bullying.

Club president Slena Britton said the club, in its second year, includes 115 members, and the concert marked the first fundraiser the club has done.

But in the meantime, she said, they've been working to make a positive impact in their school -- not just for students, but faculty as well.

Singer Steph Carse and the Immaculate Conception School Choristers sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" during an anti-bullying benefit concert Sunday at the Osage Centre.Ben Matthews

"I always think of us all as a family," she said. "We're just trying to be there for everybody and make a positive environment for students and faculty members."

She said the idea for the event initially came from Carse, but the proceeds will go toward a cause the club has been pursuing for some time.

"Our librarian said there was someone interested in doing an anti-bullying concert, and we went and ran with it," she said. "This year, we're adopting a family with a special-needs child for the holidays using money we have already and money from donations we're hoping to get tonight to give those people a good Christmas."

Carse, after opening with a Christmas-themed version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," told the crowd in a contentious time, a kind word goes a long way, and adults can lead by example. "[Children] see what we do. They hear what we say," he said. "The only way to make this country great is to bring the country together."

After singing "The Circle of Life" from The Lion King, he brought up the Immaculate Conception Church Choristers for an arrangement of "Amazing Grace" based on music from around the world. "We all have different ways to praise God," he said. "There's no perfect way."

But that each culture has a tradition was enough to bridge the gaps between one another, he said.

He cited the studies of Masaru Emoto, a Japanese researcher, who claimed frozen water formed different crystals when presented with positive and negative stimuli.

"If words affect water molecules like this," he said, "do you know we're made of 70 to 75 percent water?"

People, he said, react depending on how they're treated.

"We know that our words have the power to kill or to give life," he said, sharing his personal story of having been bullied for being shy as a child.

"Things change, right?" he said. "Give me a microphone, and I'm not shy anymore."

But children who feel valued and confident in their talents, whether they are singing or otherwise, are more productive and happy than those who are bullied.

He pulled club members onstage for advice on how to tell whether your child is being bullied. Jimmie Miller of Broken and Redeemed Dance Studio shared stories about helping children find their identities through dance.

"It's definitely a way to get kids to break out of their shells," he said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

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