River Street Promotions’ (RSP) April 29 Music Row at the Mae show, featuring Victoria Banks, Phil Barton, and Jeff Cohen, with surprise guest appearances from Jordyn Pollard and Ty Hunter, raised $31,011.99 for the RSP youth mental wellness fund at Prairie South School Division (PSSD).
Jared Mathieson of RSP made the announcement on Friday, May 20 at A.E. Peacock Collegiate. Peacock’s Centennial auditorium was the site of a pre-show performance exclusively for high school students on the morning of April 29.
Several hundred students were able to hear from Banks, Barton, and Cohen — internationally successful singer/songwriters based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Afterwards, they had the chance to take pictures and ask questions of the performers.
Emily Shackelton was unable to make it after she contracted COVID.
Joel Stewart, a member of RSP and a renowned country music producer, said at the time that “I hope we reach one kid here. I mean, it’s high school, there’s a bunch of kids who will be like, ‘this is awesome — I’m not in class’ and that will be that. … But I hope there’s one kid here that this will mean the world to.”
Also present for the announcement of the funding total were Andy Hamilton of RSP; Michaela Turner, representing major sponsor Moose Jaw Co-op; Tyler Kerr of the Co-op Ethanol Complex, another major corporate sponsor; Amanda Olson, superintendent of learning at PSSD; and four high school students from Vanier and Peacock who were at the April 29 event — Grace Waldenberger, Piper Olson, Bella Korthuis, and Sam Blondeau-Anderson.
The students said they loved the music and the show and were grateful for the opportunity.
“It was a really neat experience getting to hear from some people who have actually been in Nashville and chased their dreams,” Waldenberger said. “You don’t get to see and hear that firsthand very often.”
Olson agreed: “Especially in Moose Jaw, where you don’t get to hear about many big names, or anything like that.”
Mathieson said that the evening show at the Mae Wilson was awesome, but the Peacock show that morning was special because RSP’s purpose is to help those very students.
“A lot of people didn’t know about that morning high school show. And to me, what we’re raising money for is the high school mental wellness, and to see the actual impact of 500 or so students in the audience was pretty awesome,” he said. “To see them come up and talk to all the artists after and ask them questions and get photos and stuff — to me, that was the impactful part.”
Kerr said that the Co-op Ethanol Complex was very proud to sponsor with Moose Jaw Co-op on such an important initiative.
“Moose Jaw Co-op was very proud to be part of this exciting event,” Turner agreed. “It was very special to bring this to Moose Jaw, and most importantly to have big impacts for our local high school students.”
Olson, who oversees the distribution of RSP funds in PSSD and a sharing partnership with Holy Trinity Catholic School Division, expressed appreciation on behalf of staff at those divisions.
“From the bottom of our hearts, we are so appreciative of this partnership with River Street Promotions,” she said, “and the opportunities related to mental health wellness that it offers our students.”
“It’s an honour to put these shows together with a great group of people and have an audience who’s so interested in being involved and contributing to the cause that we’re trying to help out,” Hamilton said.
Tickets for RSP’s Homestand ’22 on September 10 at Ross Wells Park are now on sale from Sasktix.ca. Last year, the inaugural Homestand ’21 raised $50,000 for youth mental wellness, and contributed another $15,000 for the maintenance and beautification of Ross Wells Park itself.
