An hour before the show started, a crowd of about 40 showed up at the House anxiously waiting for the festivities to start.

One spectator asked, “When can we go in? I can’t wait to see Bill [Lowe] perform! Where’s Bill? Where’s Bill!”

Most of the patrons who came to the House, 263 E. Lincoln Highway, Saturday night were there for the Hope Haven Benefit show.

The benefit show consisted of a variety of acts, all of which followed the theme of the night – spring forth. The first performance was the Michael J. Washington Trio, an eclectic jazz group and regular performers at the House. They calmed the anxious crowd with a half hour of music.

The second act was a slew of poetry read by Sarah Adkins. In keeping with the intentions of the performance, she chose to read selections of poetry as well as Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree.” Also, Adkins said she wanted to read poems that dealt with hope because of the hope and happiness that one has as a child.

The third act, unlike the previous act, was far more morose.

The curtains opened and there was a bride standing at the Vietnam Memorial Wall. She began to speak to an unseen person, someone inside the wall. Then the wall talked back to her.

The voice was from the soul of a soldier who died in Vietnam, a soldier the bride loved. The dialogue was a series of poems written by Hope Haven resident and Vietnam veteran Bill Lowe, the soldier. It continued back and forth until the wall opened and out stepped the ghost to dance with his bride, played by Tammy Funk.

The ghost then went back into the wall as his bride continued to dance by herself and eventually fell to her knees crying. The curtains closed, the music stopped and the audience gave the only standing ovation of the night. Bill’s concerns about the show were behind him, and he finally was able to relax.

Prior to the performance, he said, “Oh, don’t ask how I’m doing, I’m so nervous.”

The final act was a dance number performed by three junior dance majors, Katie Dahlseng, Katie Donnell and Christina Shore. Their performance was introduced as “Winter Sucks, Spring is Good” in keeping with the theme of the night. At first, the dance was slow and graceful, then energetic tribal music started and the dancing picked up and got wild. One could describe it as nature celebrating spring, like trees dancing in the wind.

“The dancing was really cool and interesting,” said senior environmental ecology major Stacy Naden.

Hope Haven started in 1990, and has since provided 80,000 nights of shelter and more than 200,000 meals.

Last year, about 300 people stayed at the shelter and of those 300, 98 of them were children. One out of every three residents at the shelter are kids, and Saturday’s benefit was held on their behalf. Most of the money will be used to build a playground at Hope Haven. The plan is to build the park in the empty lot next to the shelter, and the remainder of the money will be put toward the construction of new facilities.