Proceeds from the show, Elpida: The Legacy of a Hero, will benefit Melissa’s Living Legacy Teen Cancer Foundation, and the CURE Childhood Cancer Association.
The performance is presented by the Greece Athena National Honor Society and the Greece Dream Team.
Lisa Muldowney, 17, a Greece Athena High School senior, said her school’s students last year also put on a musical benefit to raise money for cancer research, but this year decided to open up participation to the entire district.
“It’s not just people at Athena who are affected by cancer,” said Lisa, the show’s vocal director. “It touches all of us, at every school and people wanted to be involved.”
One of those from outside the district who got involved is Bryn Mugnolo, 16, a student at Rush-Henrietta Senior High School. She learned about the show through her involvement with Teens Living with Cancer, a project of Melissa’s Living Legacy Teen Cancer Foundation.
“I am three years out from the end of my treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” said Bryn, who said she joined the show so she’d get to sing and dance, and so she could talk to kids about coping with cancer and coping when a loved one or friend has cancer. “Not a lot of people have experience dealing with it when a friend gets sick.”
“I think it’s very meaningful that students from all of our schools have come together to work for a common purpose,” said Ian Gupton, an English teacher at Athena who is the show’s faculty adviser.