Senior Diana West participated in a concert benefit called, Shades of Music, raising money for the Richard “Ricky” Towns Scholarship on Sept. 18, at the Liberty Community Worship Center.

Richard Towns was West’s uncle, and a well known performing arts teacher in the downtown St. Louis area. He taught for twenty five years in the St. Louis Public school system. The scholarship was started in 2004 at the Harris-Stowe State University in memory of Richard Towns, and is for students who cannot pay for themselves to get all the way through college, making it possible for them to finish school.

Shades of Music was a concert featuring an all-student band. Each student was under the age of twenty, and were all related. West sang along with her sisters, and cousins for the event.

The band was rehearsing for months to prepare for the show.

“We were getting ready for the concert since July, rehearsing two times a week,” West said.

The event was free to attend, but from donations from attendees the students raised $2,937 for the scholarship, making it possible for another student to be awarded the scholarship.

“I was so excited at the amount of money raised that night,” West said. “It was amazing. There were no seats left because of how many people came, we had to start getting extra seats so everyone coming had a spot.”

From the successful turnout and amount of money raised from the benefit, there is another concert set to happen this upcoming 2017 summer.

“I was so sad when it was over, I didn’t want to leave. But it was for a good cause, and this is only the beginning for our band,” West said.