Dollar Bay-Tamarack City music instructor Amy Johnson conducts the Copper Country Community Band at the Unité Mental Health and Wellness benefit concert at Jeffers High School Friday evening. (Chelsea Bossert/Daily Mining Gazette)

PAINESDALE — Jeffers High School hosted a mental health benefit concert Friday evening with seven local bands and music programs in the Copper Country. The funds raised through donation went to Unité Mental Health and Wellness, a mental health-focused non-profit. 

The concert was organized by Jeffers senior Olivia Berryman for her National Honors Society senior project. The concert was organized with the goal of helping fight the stigma surrounding mental health, especially in a smaller area as the Keweenaw, Berryman said. 

“I feel like, especially today, people who need support may not seek it out,” she said. “And I feel it’s important that we have resources readily available and easily accessible for those people.”

The line-up for the 7 p.m. show included pre-concert solos, the Jeffers High School Band, Lake Linden-Hubbell Middle School Band, Lake Linden-Hubbell Jazz Band, the Copper Country Community Band, the Jeffers Drum Club, as well as the Noteworthy A Capella group and oldies band, Rewind. 

Jeffers music director Emily Raffelli said Berryman’s leadership shined through in organizing this event.

“[Olivia] has done a great job with it. She’s been good about organizing everything and inviting everybody,” she said. “I’m gonna really miss her next year when she’s gone.”

Raffelli, who directs the Jeffers K-12 music program, also said the rest of the band pulled their weight and put on an outstanding performance as well.

“They play so well and they play with such feeling,” she said. “That’s what these kinds of concerts are about.”

Lake Linden band director Micah Erickson was one the maestros Berryman recruited to help put on the program. He said in a smaller community such as Jeffers or Lake Linden, music can unite people for a good cause.

“It’s awesome that something like this can bring us together,” he said. “I think that music serves a purpose in our community, and that is to bring people together.”

Both Raffelli and Erickson played in the Copper Country Community Band, which is co-directed by the music instructor at Dollar Bay-Tamarack City schools, Amy Johnson. 

Johnson said some of the tunes played at the concert were hand-picked by the band to convey a message of unity and togetherness.

“One of the pieces that we did is called ‘Choose Joy’ by Randall Standridge, is part of his ‘Unbroken Project,'” she said. “And the focus of that piece that I love so much is the idea that we need to find the moments of joy, because even when we’re going through hard things, we can find those moments of joy.”

Rewind was the last band to perform and played lighthearted classics such as “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” by The Beatles and “I’m a Believer” by Neil Diamond. The band invited people to the dance floor to end the show on a triumphant note. 

Berryman will be attending the University of Michigan in the fall, studying biomedical engineering. She said she believes by connecting music and mental health, people will feel less alone in the world. 

“I think that is a challenge because sometimes I think people who are suffering are embarrassed to seek help,” she said. “I think music can help with that because it can convey a wide range of emotions, and it’s just a really good way to let those emotions out and convey them to your peers.”