CFTC-McPherson

     This past Thursday, in McPherson, Concert For The Cause held a special impromptu show at Hopp's SnoShack on the corner of Elm and Euclid.  It proved to be a terrific venue where neighbors from around town gathered together to support the Girl Scouts and enjoy some unusual music provided by Chris Arpad.

     Burgess Martin and Josh Keeling opened the evening's festivities with a twist on Martin's two instruments at once technique and his guitar tap method.  Tonight was a debut of sorts, as Keeling also played two instruments at one time.  Martin has long played two guitars at the same time and has even played guitar with a bow string, or using his special guitar tap method; however, tonight Keeling played bass guitar and acoustic guitar at the same time as Martin accompanied him by playing two guitars at the same time as recorded drum beats rounded out the musical set.  What a great way to kick off the evening.

Burgess Martin

Josh Keeling

     Then it was time for Chris Arpad to take the stage.  Arpad played a couple of unusual silver kettle style drums. He single handedly transformed a small landlocked town in Kansas into a beach front community where summer never ends, as he entertained the crowd with a variety of summer styled vacation songs.  Think anything Jimmy Buffet.  Every song he played had a smooth Calypso Island beat to it, including some not so typical tunes such as Smooth by Santana and Just my Imagination by The Temptations.  At one point a conga line broke out and snaked its way throughout the crowd.  Near the end of the evening the space in front of the stage filled up with various crowd members who just couldn't contain themselves any longer and had to groove to the beat.

Chris Arpad

       The Girl Scouts were selling freshly popped buttered popcorn and had tickets for sale to win a variety of donated prizes.  Of course snocones were available in abundance from Hopps SnoShack.  At the end of the evening, names were drawn for the prizes.  Arpad was chosen by the Girl Scouts to draw the names of the prize winners and he had a large family following in attendance at the event.  The first name her drew was his mother, Elaine.  Her name was pulled out and he drew another, which turned out to be his sister, Lisa.  The crowd began to laugh.  Her name was pulled out and he drew another which turned out to be his aunt, Alberta, to which the crowd began to chant "it's rigged" and the laughter continued.  So Arpad tried it one more time and drew out the name of another family member, Gina.  He laughed and turned the duties over to one of the event organizer's, James Lowe, and one of the Girl Scout members to continue on with the duties of picking winners for the prizes.

      It was a lovely evening of food, fun, music, community and families.  Everyone enjoyed themselves, money was raised to continue the work of the Girl Scouts, and what a treat to hear Chris Arpad's unusual musical stylings.

     Arpad, a McPherson native who now lives in California, was in town for the annual high school reunion weekend.  While in town, he was scheduled to play a private party on Saturday night at The McPherson Country Club for reunion weekend and also for the annual back to school ice cream social at St. Joseph's Catholic School on Sunday.  On his way back home to California, Arpad has an engagement in Palm Springs and is looking forward to the possibility of playing at The Goodwill Games in 2016.

     Concert For The Cause will be helping to host a show in McPherson at the band shell in Lakeside Park on Saturday, August 22 as a benefit for The McPherson Food Bank.