Pianist Philip Fortenberry returned home over the weekend to play a benefit concert for Kids Hub Child Advocacy Center, and the charity that helps abused children announced it’s planning on opening a Columbia office.
Fortenberry said it was an honor to give back in his hometown during his most favorite of seasons.
“It’s always a pleasure for me to come back to Mississippi to play,” he said.
The Hub native and former child prodigy who played piano at churches throughout Marion County during his youth has enjoyed a long career on Broadway and now in Las Vegas.
His niece, Didi Ellis of Petal, is the founder and executive director of Kids Hub. Fortenberry did a benefit concert when Ellis started the nonprofit five years ago and returned to do so again this weekend. He performed Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon at the Chapel Lane Church & House, the former Catholic church on Church Street that the Bourne family has renovated into an event facility.
Fortenberry praised the location, saying he loved the wood restored to its original beauty and that the sound was so good they decided to play the concerts totally acoustic. Singer Rebecca Spencer, a longtime collaborator with Fortenberry from Los Angeles who joined him for the concert, walked to the back of the building and sang one song from the steps in the rear of the former sanctuary.
“She can sing from back there, and you can hear everything,” Fortenberry said. “It’s incredible.”
They performed Christmas songs and were joined by a cellist from Mexico, Mengielly Diaz-Cortes, who is in the strings program at William Carey University.
All the proceeds benefitted Kids Hub, which helps child abuse victims in a five-county area that includes Marion County. Its services include forensic interviews, family and victim advocacy, child abuse prevention education and multidisciplinary team case review. They’ve helped more than 1,600 children in the past five years.
Ellis, the executive director, shared with the audience during the Saturday performance how her Christian faith motivated her to start Kids Hub and how she felt God was leading her to open a satellite location in Marion County. She said previously children from Marion, Lawrence and Jeff Davis counties have had to travel all the way to Hattiesburg and that an office in Columbia will lessen the travel burden on families as well as the time and money spent on those cases.
Ellis said they’ve leased space on Second Street and are raising money to make it compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. She said they hope to open the office in early to mid 2020.
