WABASH, GRANT, MIAMI COUNTIES,Indiana – The 2016 Shekinah show has begun in the MiBash area with a convocation at Oak Hill yesterday morning and Eastbrook Jr. High School yesterday afternoon. Tuesday, the Shekinah tour continued at Marion High School and McCulloch Jr. High and will travel to Fulton at Caston Jr. / Sr. High on Wednesday. The group will be at Northfield on Thursday morning and North Miami Thursday afternoon. The Shekinah tour will culminate with a performance in the Honeywell Center’s Legacy Hall Thursday night at 7 pm. The bill that night includes the rock groups Ballenger and 390 East, as well a presentation by performance art team Break The Grey and speaker Nathan Harmon.
2016 marks Ft. Wayne-based Break The Grey’s fourth time participating with Shekinah. The latter group was formed here in Wabash almost 20 years ago and has taken messages of hope and making better choices to thousands of students in the area at school assemblies over those years. In a telephone interview, Billy Ballenger, Break The Grey’s founder, said that the messages of his group and Shekinah overlap and so it is a perfect fit for the two groups to join together for these school assemblies.
After an accident that claimed the life of Northfield 8th grader Jonathan Snyder, his mother and father set up a trust fund which allows groups to come and speak to the assemblies at local schools. This fund has sponsored Shekinah for nearly 20 years.
This week’s presentations will involve frank discussions on cutting, suicide, bulling, peer pressure, dating violence and drunk driving. The overall goal is to teach kids just how precious life is. Ballenger said that the schools have been very cooperative over the years allowing the members of both groups to share their stories so as to try to teach students to make better choices and, in some cases, save lives. This year, he said, some local schools will not have the convocations because of conflicts with the ISTEP exam.
Marion-native Nathan Harmon has also been speaking at the school assemblies on this tour telling the students of the drunk driving accident which claimed the life of his passenger. After getting out of prison for manslaughter, Harmon has told countless students about the dangers of drinking and driving with the blessing of the family of the young woman who was killed in the accident.
Ballenger, who spent some time in prison himself following a drug bust, describes why this is so important to his organization Break The Grey.
He added that Break The Grey has been reached 50,000 students in school convocations and assemblies last year alone. Although they tour mainly the Midwest, the group has been to Georgia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Washington State and even Canada.
The show on Thursday night at the Honeywell Center will end at around 9:30 pm. Doors open at 6 pm and the show begins at 7. All students in the area – including local high schools that the group did not hit this time – will receive a free ticket for the show on Thursday night. Ballenger said that all the kids have to do at Wabash and Southwood have to do to get a free ticket is to ask at the school office.
For more information, visits breakthegrey.com.