By Sarah Ruholl
Assistant Verge Editor
This Saturday night, 7th Street Underground will be rocking for a good cause.
The EIU chapter of Habitat for Humanity is hosting a benefit show Saturday night from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. featuring the Staff Blues Band, Howard, Learn to Fly, Little Boy Junior and Thriftstore Beatniks.
There is a $4 minimum donation to get into the show, and the money is going towards “The House that EIU Built” fund. The campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity is working toward funding and building a house somewhere in Coles County.
Usually, the Coles County chapter funds the houses and the campus chapter helps with the labor, but they hope to do one on their own. The group is a little over halfway to their $30,000 goal to fund a house themselves.
This is the first benefit show the group is hosting, and another is planned for the spring.
“We thought it would be cool to have another organization support local music,” Bryan Rolfsen, junior biological sciences major and member of the campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity, said about the decision to host a rock show.
Rolfsen is also a member of the band Howard, and he wanted to give some of the local bands a chance to play on campus. He is also hoping that the local names will help draw in a crowd.
“We chose those bands because they have a following and we want people to come,” he said.
All of the bands except Thriftstore Beatniks have Eastern students in them. The Thriftstore Beatniks is a solo guitarist named Adrian Sobol from Chicago whom Rolfsen said plays mostly folk rock. When Sobol performs in Chicago, he will often play with a cellist as well, but it will be just him at the show Saturday night.
Rolfsen is excited that the Staff Blues Band, the winner of the Verge’s Battle of the Bands, will be playing the show.
“We’re friends with them, and they’re really good,” he said.
The EIU chapter of Habitat for Humanity’s biggest fundraiser is the annual Shantytown event in spring.
“The high school kids build shanties out of cardboard and tape. They go around and collect donations from their parents and local people,” Rolfsen said.
The campus chapter and the county chapter also sponsor a dinner dance and silent auction in February and share the money raised.
The group is hoping students come out and support their cause.
“We thought people could come and have some fun,” he said.
