Local bands will rock out at the Chilkat Center at 7 p.m. Saturday to raise money for next summer’s Haines Girls Rock Camp.

The concert will feature performances by The Last Minute Band, made up of four girls who participated in the camp in July, as well as Amanda Randles, Marvin Willard, Lena Nance, Jacob Brown-Beach and the Monica Lettner Trio. Attendees can expect to hear a mix of rock, blues, alternative rock, and both original songs and covers.

Tickets cost $10, and 100 percent of the proceeds will help families pay the camp’s $350 tuition. Girls Rock Camp Alaska founder and executive director Monica Lettner said the tuition covers the cost of providing instruments and equipment, including drum set, guitar and bass, for the week-long camp. Lettner said the value of similar camps is around $500.

Nineteen girls ages 8 to 14 learned new instruments, formed bands and wrote songs within a week in July. The bands also played their tunes on the mainstage at the Southeast Alaska State Fair. Lettner said she expects more girls to register for the 2017 camp.

“We’re trying to make this realistic for people in the area,” Lettner said.

Girls Rock Camp Alaska received several grants for this year’s camp from foundations and charities in Anchorage that liked the nonprofit’s mission to branch out of the city and serve communities statewide.

Lettner said she is hosting the fundraiser this weekend to hopefully offer as many tuition waivers as possible. Despite putting on only one small fundraiser two days before the 2016 camp began, the organization was able to give tuition waivers to every participant who asked for one.

Lettner said she is also going to scope out places in Haines this weekend that could house the volunteer staff and kids overnight next summer. She hopes to make Girls Rock a sleepaway camp in 2017. Overnight stays in Haines would more easily allow girls from other parts of Southeast Alaska and Yukon to participate. Lettner said she doesn’t know yet how much lodging will cost, or if it will be added to the tuition.

Lettner said Girls Rock Camp is starting to fundraise early this year because “we need the community to be more involved.”

“I need more people talking about it,” Lettner said.

Camp registration opens in January, and Lettner plans to host one more fundraiser in the spring for the Haines camp.

Author