Herald-Review.com

Decatur youth will have a chance to see three musical acts in September when First Free Will Baptist Church hosts a youth rally at the Decatur Civic Center.

Christian rappers Point5, Nick Bifanno and The Innocents, and Matt Vollmar and The Great Romance will be featured. The event is dedicated to the memory of Silas Martin, who died in December at age 16 of cancer, and whose influence on friends, family and even author and TV star Adam Richman was widespread.

“(My son) Shobi had the chance to preach his first sermon at First Free Will Baptist,” said Gloria Martin, Silas' mom. “While we were there, they mentioned that the youth group was planning a concert and it was Matt Vollmar and The Great Romance, who recorded that song that Silas claimed (as his theme song), 'Bigger Than the Odds.' ”

One of Silas' favorite things to say was that he was healed, “this side or the other” and that “God is bigger than the odds,” which is what the song is about. When Martin heard that Vollmar was playing at the rally, she offered to help organize, and Tiffany Ballard, an adult youth group volunteer at the church, took her up on it.

“We decided this would be a great thing to make in memory of Silas,” Ballard said.

Silas was a proponent of Alex's Lemonade Stand, an organization that supports pediatric cancer research, and $2 of every ticket sold will be donated to the organization, Ballard said, with a goal of $2,000 in donations, the amount that Alex's Lemonade Stand estimates will pay for one full day of research.

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