HF-L Class of 2025 grads Jenna Quinn and Amelia Somers perform at last year’s concert. Photo by Jason Gloor
A concert conceived by four students (and all now graduates) at Honeoye Falls-Lima High School that will help a charitable organization and also showcase the talents of many HF-L current and former students will be back for the third consecutive summer.
The 3rd Annual Harmony: A Charity Concert For Change will be taking place on Saturday, August 1 at Harry Allen Park in the village of Honeoye Falls starting at 6 p.m.
The concert, the creation of HF-L Class of 2025 graduates Kate Gabrielsen, Taber Gloor and Kaylee Henshaw and HF-L Class of 2026 grad Mikey Ruff, will benefit the organization Doctors Without Borders. The concert raised $1,300 in its first year (2024) for Save the Children Foundation and raised around $1,000 last year for UNICEF.
“We chose Doctors Without Borders because they help people internationally,” said Ruff during a phone interview on July 26. “We changed who the concert will benefit this year because each of the first two years, the four of us have felt guilty choosing just one so we decided to choose different ones each year. There are so many worthy causes that each one of us is passionate about.”
Perhaps the most surprising thing is that there is no set charge for the concert; instead the money is raised through free-will donations by those attending it.
“We have been super lucky that people attending the concert have been very generous,” Ruff said. “We have also had the support of businesses like The Ice S’coop in Mendon and Copy Town in Lima as well as the village of Honeoye Falls and Mr. Ken Goold, the director of the high school choirs, who has set up the sound system for us.”
The concert will be back at Harry Allen Park this year after being at Rotary Park in 2025 due to construction at Harry Allen Park.
Over the three years, the concert has grown in the number of performers. In 2024, there were six performers and last year, there were seven. This weekend, eight to 10 acts will take the stage. The largest group will be the Honeoye Falls Community Concert Band.
“We had booked the park for this year and the Concert Band had also booked it for the same date and time,” Ruff said. “With the miscommunication, they reached out to us, after they had talked to village officials, to see if they could perform with us. We thought it was a great idea and were very happy that they wanted to be part of the concert. We hope we can continue a partnership with the Community Concert Band.”
Ruff said the concert also has a great lineup of student and alumni performers such as the quintet of Kellen Adams, Wilson Bond, Connor Nells, Heather Parham and Ashley Parrish, Gloor and Madison Fleming, Gabrielsen and Henshaw and Claire and Maeve Connors. There are also student performers from other districts: Addison Schulitz is from Pittsford Mendon and Casey Howe is from Brighton, both of whom Ruff met through theater experiences such as the Rochester Broadway Theater League Stars of Tomorrow NYC Bound competition.
The four organizers are thrilled with how well-received and supported their efforts have been with the first two concerts and ahead of this third one.
“All of us had high hopes for the idea,” Ruff said. “I think it has taken off more than we thought it would, though, and that is exciting and particularly this year with the Community Concert Band joining us. We’d like to continue this as long as we can; although Kate, Taber and Kaylee will now be sophomores in college and I will be going to college in the fall as well but maybe we will be able to pass this off to other students later.”
