lsquo;Concert For A Cause V rsquo; to aid NEPA rsquo;s kids

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This year rsquo;s event, with 22 acts on the bill, will benefit the Child Development Council of NEPA

Over the course of the year, the agency rsquo;s 11 childcare centers help more than 2,000 children.
Next Wednesday, 22 bands from NEPA will perform at ldquo;Concert For A Cause V rdquo; to help the Child Development Council. The show, which takes place at The Woodlands Inn Resort in Plains Township, will feature nearly 90 musicians and is the biggest ldquo;Concert For A Cause rdquo; to date.

ldquo;Concert For A Cause rdquo; is an annual musical event that unites the local music community in an effort to raise much needed funds for local human-service agencies. It began in 1999 under the name ldquo;Concert For Karen rdquo; and became ldquo;Concert For A Cause rdquo; in 2003. Collectively, the nine shows have raised a total of more than $125,000.

Past beneficiaries have included the Leukemia Society of America, V.I.S.

I.O.N.

, the Children rsquo;s Service Center, Luzerne County Head Start and The Wyoming Valley Children rsquo;s Association.
This year rsquo;s benefactor, the Child Development Council of NEPA, was founded in 1972. It provides year-round daycare to families in need while also fostering learning and enhancing physical, intellectual and emotional growth in children.

A recent visit to one of the Child Development Council centers revealed a warm environment where students playfully interacted with teachers. There were plenty of activities and crafts, and most importantly, a true sense of comfort. Considering the agency serves children from just a few weeks old to those in sixth grade, and considering some children may stay at a center from 6:30 a.

m. to 5:30 p.m.

, a welcoming atmosphere for both students and parents is important.
ldquo;Our goal is to provide the highest quality of childcare possible for all children entrusted to our care, rdquo; says Susan Dinofrio, executive director of the Child Development Council of NEPA. ldquo;We promote their social, emotional, physical and intellectual development, and we see ourselves as partners with parents.

There rsquo;s a lot of debate over whether children should be in childcare or not, but the bottom line is parents need to go to work. There are lots of single-parent families out there, and a lot of two-parent families, who are not going to work for luxuries, they rsquo;re going to work for necessities. rdquo;
Dinofrio, who has worked at the agency for 15 years, says individualization is the key to providing quality daycare.

She says infants, toddlers, pre-school and school-aged kids all have greatly different needs, as do the individual children within those age groups.
ldquo;Beyond just keeping children safe while their parents are at work, we feel it rsquo;s necessary for us to provide a quality early learning program so that the children are also using their early years - which are very important learning years - for development, rdquo; she says. ldquo;We do an early learning program that rsquo;s very specific to the different ages of children.

All kids are different. While we provide group care - because that rsquo;s what child care is - we also never forget that each child is an individual. rdquo;
Though next week rsquo;s ldquo;Concert For A Cause V rdquo; is essentially a big rock show and should provide those that attend with a fun night of music, its main goal and sole purpose is to help raise money for the agency which it benefits.

The Child Development of NEPA, says Dinofrio, can certainly use the funds.
ldquo;The council itself isn rsquo;t funded by anybody, rdquo; she says. ldquo;Parents can be funded by welfare, or by the state hellip; it is the parent that is certified, not the Child Development Council.

We also have parents who pay privately, who aren rsquo;t eligible for any subsidy. But with all children who are subsidized by any program, there is a cap in place on the amount of money (available to parents), so it essentially doesn rsquo;t matter what your (operating) costs are. And the cost of good childcare is much higher than what you would be able to charge a parent per day.

rdquo;
For example, Dinofrio says some parents pay only about $2 an hour for daycare for their infants, which as you might expect, doesn rsquo;t go too far.
ldquo;It costs a lot more than $2 an hour to provide high quality child care, rdquo; she says, adding that such money helps defray the cost of feeding the children, plus purchasing classroom supplies and equipment and even paying the insurance and the rent for the facilities. Still, she says all children are welcome at the Child Development Council.

The kids always come first.
ldquo;We do not, in any way, cap the number, rdquo; she says. ldquo;We don rsquo;t say we want a certain amount of paying children and a certain number of subsidized children.

We take the children as they come. Our mission, because we rsquo;re not-profit, is to serve all children and to make sure all children get a quality childcare experience - not just those that could pay top dollar for it. rdquo;
Performing at ldquo;Concert For A Cause V rdquo; will be will be Bret Alexander, The Five Percent, OurAfter, k8, Crush, Plus 3, Owen rsquo;s Grudge, Spit Can, Nowhere Slow, popShop, Newpastlife, 40-Lb.

Head, Panacea, M-80, Music For Models, The Collective, Lessen One, The Band Brown, Fighting Zero, Go Go Gadjet, Bad Hair Day and Flaxy Morgan. David Lee, the executive director of the United Way of the Wyoming Valley, says the appeal of ldquo;Concert For A Cause rdquo; is that it is aimed at the youth of NEPA and that it helps raise not just money, but also awareness about some of the local human-service agencies found within the community. Without ldquo;Concert For A Cause, rdquo; says Lee, a large demographic of people might otherwise not know much about the work these agencies do and the services they provide.

Dinofrio agrees, and adds that she rsquo;s also enjoyed telling the kids what the bands and those that attend the show are doing for them.
ldquo;What a great thing to hold out to the children - to be able to explain to them that all of these people are doing this, just to help you out, and that they rsquo;re doing this just for you, rdquo; she says. ldquo;It rsquo;s also great to be able to present that to our parents, and our staff is just completely overwhelmed and has really been uplifted by this whole thing.

ldquo;For all of these people to just come together and do this is just completely amazing. rdquo;
k8 - 7-7:30 p.m.

Bret Alexander - 7:30-8 p.m.
Plus 3 - 8:30-9 p.

m.
OurAfter - 9:30-10 p.m.

40-Lb. Head - 10:30-11 p.m.

Where: The Woodlands Inn Resort,
Plains Township.
When: Wednesday, April 25.
Doors open at 6:30 p.

m.
Music starts at 7 p.m.

and continues until 2 a.m.
and CDs will also be on sale for $5.

There will also be a rock auction.
Child Development Council of NEPA.