The Eau Claire community was treated to a musical performance from the UW-Eau Claire a cappella groups this past Sunday evening. The groups include Callisto A Cappella, The Innocent Men, Fifth Element, Impromptu A Cappella and AUDACIOUS. 

Meagan Miers from Impromptu, Ella Williamson from Callisto, Zoe Lewis from AUDACIOUS, and Mitch Pettijohn from The Innocent Men planned the benefit concert.

“We talked about it one day, and then it kinda just happened,” Pettijohn said.

“All the a cappella groups are really good friends on campus,” Lewis said. “We wanted to do an event all together that was also going to go towards a good cause.” 

The cause Lewis is referring to is The Wellness Shack, an organization that helps adults living with mental illness in the Eau Claire area achieve wellness, stability and fullness of life.

“When looking at different charities that we could donate to, we were thinking about the biggest area of need in our community,” Williamson said. “We know that mental health challenges is really one of the greatest concerns in our community right now, and the UW campus offers a great resource for free on-campus therapy,” 

“Because it is such a need, it is really backed up, so we were looking for other resources that people could use, and the wellness shack is that. It’s located [in] downtown Eau Claire, and it’s another resource that provides 1-on-1 and group therapy sessions. [They] help kinda form a community that can relate to you, and help you through any challenges you may have.”

All the a cappella groups started planning this event at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year. 

“February is when we started to kick things off, but ideas were flowing at the beginning of first semester,” Miers said. “February was when we started having our meetings and assigning different roles that [people] could do.” 

At the benefit concert, audience members got a preview of the songs the a cappella groups will sing at their respective concerts later in the spring semester.

Donations to The Wellness Shack can be made at their GoFundMe page.

Evbayekha can be reached at [email protected].