Having taken the stage on May 30 to begin The New Founders Awards Dinner, Grape Jam performed Alabama’s “Angels Among Us,” a song written to honor heroic people who stand up for others.  The song fit the theme of the night’s event, which honored students from around the country for their work against gun violence.

“Dine and dare with the leaders who are working together to turn the House blue in 2018,” reads the NewFounders Awards Dinner eventbrite page.  

A group of “young leaders looking to bridge the gap between the old guard and the new,”  NewFounders believes in “unity through problem solving,” according to the group’s website.  

The NewFounders Awards Dinner, which took place at Savage Smyth on Chicago’s Near North Side, was hosted by a committee of nine Chicago activists, including Parker history teacher Kevin Conlon, Alderman Michele Smith, and Parker parents Lucy Moog and Anne Wedner, who asked Parker’s Grape Jam to perform.   

The purpose of the event was to raise money for the change-making groups trying to win back the House of Representatives for democrats in the 2018 election, as well as to honor activists in the community, including the student activists behind the March for Our Lives, Ambassador Bruce Heyman and his wife Vicki Heyman, co-founders of Uncharted, an organization that focuses on political activism, and Commissioner Bridget Gainer, the founder of Cause the Effect Chicago, an organization that encourages women to be active in their community.

Prior to the event Wedner asked Parker’s Upper School choir teacher and department chair Sunnie Hikawa to bring Grape Jam to perform.  Wedner’s daughter, Martha, is a member of Grape Jam.  

Although in support of this event and the politics behind it, Hikawa let her students know that it was an optional performance.  She said, “I did not want anyone to participate who did not feel like they support this.”

After contacting each member and their families, Hikawa learned that one student would not be attending with the group.  “I am sorry that it is political,” Hikawa said, “and not everyone is participating.”

Parker sophomore Arie King opted out.  “It was very easy to just say, ‘No, I do not want to go,’” King said. “I really have mixed feelings about it because I also think it is always a good opportunity to experience something new and learn from it.  It’s a big movement, and the government, from what I have heard, is using the kids that have been affected by school shootings to play on the people’s emotions to get people to vote for then. I think this is very manipulative, and I do not believe in what they are doing.”   

Freshman Bella Charfoos joined the group on stage.  “I think that because the song we performed was not politically charged, it was okay,” Charfoos said.  “We were more there showing our support to the anti-gun violence movement.”  

When Wedner asked Hikawa to perform, she asked that the group sing “Angels Among Us” specifically because it was written in response to one of the first school shootings in America, which took place in 1988 at an elementary school in Winnetka, Illinois that Wedner’s daughter, Martha, attended years later.   

“I actually sang this song when I was in elementary school in Winnetka,” Martha said. “I feel it was not political in nature, so I thought it was very appropriate for this event.”