A fund-raising concert and presentation for Hesston College’s Disaster Management program will feature a Gulf Coast musician whose family benefited from Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) work following the devastation by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August 2005.

Tony Duplessis, an accomplished pianist, song writer, and singer, will perform at

7 p.m., Sunday, April 19, at Hesston Mennonite Church.

The concert will include classical and gospel music, supported by story-telling related to the hurricane, and the long road of survival and recovery.

Duplessis will present another concert during the regular 11 a.m. college chapel service Monday, April 20.

At the time Katrina struck, Duplessis was pastor of the Lighthouse Fellowship congregation in Buras, Louisiana. The home he and his wife Donna occupied was swept away by the winds and flood waters of Hurricane Katrina.

The MDS project site in Diamond, La., brought volunteers from the U.S. and Canada to build them a new home. Their home, located at 122 Gaines Lane, in Port Sulphur, La., was dedicated on December 12, 2007.

A free will offering, taken during the concert, will be used for scholarships for students who enroll in the Disaster Management program at Hesston College, now completing its fourth year as a joint venture of the college and MDS.

Two Disaster Management sophomores, Abigail Roth, Wood River, Neb., and Hope Weaver, Nederland, Colo., will speak during this time. They will talk about the Disaster Management program and their experiences while serving last summer at the MDS project site in Diamond, La. That’s where they met Tony Duplessis.

The Disaster Management program began in August 2005 at Hesston College at the request of MDS to develop students’ leadership abilities and service-mindedness.

Six sophomores will graduate from the Disaster Management program in early May, bringing the total thus far to 18.