Music has a way of moving people: literally, people cannot help but dance to a song, but also figuratively, in the sense of being called to give back. A trifecta of local non profits put together the first Concert for the Causes Saturday Night at Kern County Raceway.
“We were all hit my COVID and the pandemic pretty hard, we had to shut down programs, and organizations here are much needed in this community,” Jessica Mathews Executive Director of the League Of Dreams said.
Mathews said the country concert’s goal was to bring money after a hard year back to the League of Dreams, a sports non profit helping kids with disabilities, M.A.R.E Riding Center, which features therapeutic horseback riding for veterans and people with disabilities, and The Wounded Heroes Fund, which supports veterans in Kern County.
“And what better way than to do that, than to bring live music back to Kern County?” Mathews said.
Some of that live music came all the way from Nashville. Country artist Granger Smith was the headliner of the night. Closer to home, Bakersfield's Boones Farm Trio, Joe Peters and Jim Ranger also used their voices to support the non profits’ event.
From his trailer post-performance, Ranger virtually told 23ABC why he couldn’t pass up the chance to perform Saturday night.
“I love the concept of organizations coming together and pulling together their resources to really make a big event happen,” Ranger said. “And the timing of it: Everything has been shut down, so it was like this convergence of these really great organizations doing a lot of great work in our community as well as opening up and letting people have some fun.”
Ranger also spoke to how music in general and concerts, can inspire people to help causes.
“It has this way of touching people deeper than any words, or anything else can,” Ranger said. “It has this little magic thing: That’s what music is.”
Mathews said the non profits are hoping to make Concert for the Causes an annual event.
