In 2001, Matt Wessel, a Warren Township High School graduate, was  a freshman at Marquette University. At that point, he was already rather remarkable. His family made appearances on CBS for having three sets of twins when he was a child. Both of his parents were diagnosed with cancer, and his father sadly passed away from brain cancer during his junior year of high school.

Wessel turned to music, a family hobby, to translate his feelings about what he and his family experienced. At his first concert in 2001, three Warren Township High School students ­– Betsey Barnich, Sarah Milewski and Brian Schmidt – were touched by Wessel’s music and had an idea. The Future Business Leaders of America members asked him to perform at a fundraiser for their friend, Kate Pederson, who’d been recently diagnosed with cancer. She lost her battle with cancer in November of 2002.

That fundraiser was the first Concert for Life at St. Paul the Apostle’s in Gurnee. On March 10, Wessel will perform at the 13th annual Concert For Life.