Several days after the event, students at Northlake Middle School were still talking about the visit of MWAH! Performing Arts Troupe to their school on Nov. 6, school counselor Photini Sakaras said.

MWAH stands for Messages Which Are Hopeful! The troupe of young performers will travel throughout the area, performing shows that teach peers to cope with life’s most difficult issues. The group was founded in December 1983 by Ray Moffitt, then a police social worker in Maywood, as a way to use performing arts as a tool in changing young people’s lives.

In its appearance on October 16, 2017 at Prairie Central Junior High School in Forrest, the MWAH! Performing Arts Troupe (acronym for Messages Which Are Hopeful!) focused on a number of issues facing today’s teenagers. During the assembly, McLean County Coroner Dr. Kathleen Davis also spoke about the realities of opined abuse in the area.

With social media and the internet weaving itself into the fabric of modern society, teens may be exposed to a number of issues and topics without the filter of knowledge and common sense that comes with age. By openly discussing difficult topics such as racial divisiveness, abusive relationships, parental divorce, teenage self-injury, drug abuse, youth depression and suicide, the troupe aspires to give students a healthy perspective on the world around them.

When Prairie Central Junior High School Student Council adviser Jonnita Vogel first saw the MWAH Performing Arts Troupe at a student council state convention several years ago, she immediately felt a connection.

“Our student council members immediately said that we have to get them here and we did, and it’s really an enjoyable event for our entire school,” she said. “They do a lot of interaction with our students and the message they send really seems to sink in.”

During a 90-minute assembly Monday at the school in Forrest, members of the group discussed racial divisiveness; abusive relationships, including those between parents and children and boyfriends and girlfriends; parental divorce; and teenage self-injury and suicide.

Two contrasting character roles of MWAH! artist Shawn Conerton during the troupe’s appearance October 18, 2010 at River Ridge High School new Hanover, Ilinois.

MWAH! singers Christian Honn and Mason Ridenour compete for the attention of Kaitlyn Doyle, a junior at Henry-Senachwince High School, during a performance at her school on September 13, 2010. Both Christian and Mason succeeded. They learned that Kaitlyn also loves to sing and is a great role model.