Neighbors’ Place benefit event to be held Friday at Whitewater Music Hall

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - The Neighbors’ Place will hold its first annual benefit show “A Night for Our Neighbors” on Friday, March 3. The event will raise money for The Neighbors’ Place and increase awareness of food insecurity in Marathon County.

Mary Mack will host the event. She’s a northern Wisconsin native and has a self-proclaimed cheese dependency. She is an accomplished comic and has been a guest on the Conan O’Brien Show as well as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Award-winning bluegrass musician Nick Dumas headlines this show with an all-star band lineup. Jim Van Cleve, Rick Faris, Michael Kilby, and Maddie Dalton join Nick for two impressive sets of bluegrass.

Tickets are available online at https://theneighborsplace.kindful.com/e/a-night-for-our-neighbors. VIP tickets are on sale for $100 and include a drink ticket, buffet dinner catered by Urban Street Bistro, an intimate acoustic set with headlining performers, and priority seating for the show. General Admission tickets are available for $20. VIP ticket holders arrive by 6:15 p.m. Doors open at 7 p.m. The show begins at 8 p.m.

The Neighbors’ Place helps those in need in north central Wisconsin by providing food, basic necessities, and education, connecting guests with services, and treating everyone with dignity and respect. It is Marathon County’s largest food pantry, serving over 400 households each week and over 25,000 individuals annually.

As of Wednesday, many SNAP households will experience a change to their benefit amounts. That’s because the temporary pandemic-related boost to SNAP benefits, known as emergency allotments or EA, has come to an end.

The Neighbors’ Place Executive Director Donna Ambrose said this will have a significant impact on the people they serve.

“We’ve seen our numbers rising, we’ve only been in our new space for a month and pretty much daily, we’ve seen over 30 people that have never been there before. It’s significant, because not only is that cut, affecting most of the people that we serve. It’s $97, on average, that they’re seeing reduced. ... Larger families that can be over $200. And then you combine that with the cost of inflation and grocery goods going up. It’s a huge blow to our families,” said Ambrose.

“A Night for Our Neighbors” will be held at Whitewater Music Hall located at 130 1st Street in Wausau.

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