Many students have a passion for singing and when they come together, they can use their voices to empower their entire community.
Carols for a Cause, a music group created by Los Altos High School Senior Julia Fung, hosts a holiday benefit every year to raise awareness for nonprofits or organizations making a difference in young people’s lives. Fung said they were recently awarded the Silicon Valley Chapter of AFP with the Outstanding Youth Philanthropic Organization award.
As she and her friends were sitting around at home, depressed about the loss of live performing and attending theaters during the pandemic, they thought it would be uplifting in a dark time to hold a virtual performance to raise money for their local performance companies.
“Our group began in October 2020, when we were all finding places to perform online,” Fung said. “We were bored and anxious surrounding the loss of live performances and their ticket sales.”
Fung said they will support Peninsula College Fund and Facing History and Ourselves, two nonprofits that support student education. They chose Peninsula College Fund because it supports children from lower incomes and first-generation students in their schooling beyond high school. They also chose Facing History and Ourselves because it teaches students healthy political and social conversations.
“With the number of younger kids we have in our cast, I always aim for nonprofit partners that’d mean something to all of us, whether it be the importance of social justice impact or something more personal to our cast members,” Fung said.
According to the Carols for a Cause website, their holiday fundraiser is titled “The Last 5 Years,” commemorating the five years since their founding. LAHS students Abhinav Kasturi, Isa Baratoff and Sophia Suffoletto will be performing at the event alongside other local students ages 6-18 (Beatrice Bell, Gloria Copeland, Daphne Emmert, Brynn Fay, Osinachi Iroaga, Kaiden Luis, Eliza Lyon, Mei Ozawa, Hailey Matta, Syd Mendelson, Teagan Murphy, Declan Reilly and Keegan Reilly).
The holiday benefit is 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec.15 at the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium at 1313 Newell Road. The event is free, but donations to the listed nonprofits are encouraged.
For more information, visit carolsforacause.com.
