By Mary Alice Blackwell

Published: May 8, 2008

In the spring of 2003, three young aspiring filmmakers went off to Africa in search of a story.

Little did they realize the impact they were about to make.

Jason Russell and Bobby Bailey, who are now USC graduates, and Laren Poole from the University of California at San Diego, found themselves stranded in northern Uganda. They turned on their camera and recorded a MTV-style documentary that has touched young people across the United States.

When the trio returned home, they showed their rough cut to friends and family. That spread to colleges and high schools and religious institutions and eventually made its way to Capitol Hill and CNN.

It also came to Crozet.

“A year or two ago we had an ‘Invisible Children’ screening here at our school,” said April Salisbury, a student at Western Albemarle.

Salisbury and Alana Yuhasz helped bring the film to Western.

“We had a screening in our auditorium and a lot of people came out,” she said, “and then we started an Invisible Children’s Club.”

The local students were touched by the plight of the children of Uganda who were caught in a middle of a two-decades-old war. Many were forced to take up arms.

“The war in Uganda between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Ugandan army has left the many citizens in Uganda casualities of war,” added Diana Stan, another WAHS club member. “Children as young as four are forced to fight and kill, and also forced to watch those they love, and those they do not even know, die in front of their eyes.”

In response, the local club wanted to do more.

They help organize students not only from their high school, but also from Albemarle, Charlottesville and Monticello high schools to stage a benefit concert from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday night at the Music Resource Center.

“It will be the best of the best high school bands,” Salisbury said.

“They are coming together to raise awareness of the Invisible Children, who have been abducted and taken from their households.”

The best of the best includes the likes of Help on the Way, MEM, Once Was, Psychedelic Groove Machine, Facing the Fox, Common Ground, Brosef Stalin, Yalla, Brain Freeze and the Brown Jacket Kings.

“All the money we raise will go straight to our partner school in northern Uganda, Lacor Secondary School,” Stan said.

Salisbury said that along with an evening a good music, organizers also will have a table with information for those who would like to learn more about the Invisible Children.

“We want to raise awareness,” she said.

Tickets to Saturday’s concert are $5, $3 for children younger than 10.

For more details, call 962-6630 or 975-5795.