Sunday, Feb. 24, the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren hosted a concert featuring Kristen Graves to support Church World Service’s refugee resettlement efforts.

The event was organized by church member Pat McDonough. According to McDonough, there were 92 people in attendance and the event raised approximately $1,300.

One hundred percent of those proceeds will be going to Church World Service and its refugee efforts.

Graves and McDonough first met several years ago when Graves performed at the Crimson Frog in Harrisburg. They’ve become close friends since then, and McDonough has organized three concerts in Elizabethtown where Graves performed.

The performance itself was free admission, and attendees were asked to donate to Church World Service.

When asked about why he selected Church World Service to be the cause the donation went to, McDonough said he previously knew of the work they did.

He also said he found their work to be relevant with the current administration and the media surrounding refugees and immigrants.
Before the brief concert intermission, Graves stepped aside to let two people speak.

One was Christine Baer, the Congregational Resource Developer for Church World Service. She shared her experience working with refugee families that came to the Lancaster area.

One of those refugees, Ler La Chastain, also spoke about his experience about coming from Myanmar.

Chastain said he left his family and refugee camp to come to the United States to continue his education and has been working with the Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren for a lot of his time in the Lancaster area.

His story earned a loud round of applause from the audience.
First-year Delphi Aubry also attended the benefit concert.

“It made me feel like the world is a really messed up place, but we can all get through it together if we just love each other enough,” Aubry said.

Before attending the concert, Aubry said she did a little bit of research into what Church World Service does and found it to be a “worthwhile cause.”

According to Aubry, Graves was a great match for the concert because a lot of her messages meshed well with the cause they were supporting.

Aubry also said she found it interesting that Graves only sang one love song, “The River Song,” which was not about a person, but about the Missouri River.

Aubry said that Graves’ message seemed to be about loving everyone, so it made sense she didn’t sing a love song about just one person.

Professor of engineering and physics Dr. Kurt DeGeode was also in attendance.

DeGeode has seen Graves perform before and even hosted one of her concerts in his backyard. “When we knew she was coming, of course we were coming,” DeGeode said.

According to DeGeode, he and his wife own some of Graves’ CDs and look forward to her coming back to perform again in the coming years.

“Never give up, keep your smile on, have hope and have fun. Always stand up, there’s no stage too small, bring peace and sing along,” Graves sang in her song “The Pete Song.”

And that’s exactly what Graves does. Graves is not only a musician, but a humanitarian, as well.

She helped her husband start a non-profit organization in 2001 called Simply Smiles. According to Graves, they work on bettering life for children in Oaxaca, Mexico and on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota.

Bettering life can include building homes, starting health clinics, running summer camps and much more, Graves said.

Graves can be considered a hodgepodge humanitarian in that she helps out a lot of different groups in whatever way in most helpful to them.

According to Graves, she does more “boots on the ground” work when she’s in a more local area. She said she’s helped collect donations for shelters at local shows and assisted in beach clean ups, as well.

“Music is a human right,” Graves said. “Music ends up being the way that I am able to see and interact with the world in a way that I feel my most complete self.”

In her songs about change, revolution, nature and peace, Graves shared her complete self with the audience that night for a cause that changes the lives of struggling refugees and immigrants.