Christmas music by the Middle Georgia Concert Band will headline an event Friday night to benefit underprivileged children who need speech therapy.

The RiteCare Christmas Concert is being hosted by Scottish Rite Valley of Macon and also includes a silent auction.

“Scottish Rite asked us if we would play this as a benefit and we said yes, we’d love to,” said Nancy Rector, who is director of the Middle Georgia Concert Band. “We’ve been planning for it since last year.”

The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. and the auction will go from 6-7 p.m. Admission is $10 for ages 12 and older and $5 for those under 12.

The concert will begin after the auction ends and the auction winners will be announced during a band intermission, said Keel Broom, who is the Scottish Rite donation chairman for the event.

Auction items include gift cards, baskets and certificates to area restaurants, he said. Proceeds from the door and auction will benefit local RiteCare clinics.

“The Shriners have the 22 Shrine hospitals they fully support and for Scottish Rite, our charity is to support RiteCare. We have several in the state of Georgia,” Broom said. “The main issue is helping those children with speech and hearing issues.”

This event will benefit clinics in Macon and Perry, Rector said.

“There are several hundred children in the Middle Georgia area who are served by these clinics,” she said. “What the Scottish Rite does is if there is a child who doesn’t have the funds to pay, Scottish Rite picks up their full tab. It is just an excellent, excellent organization.”

The show will cap off a series of performances of Christmas music from the Middle Georgia Concert Band, which typically plays six to eight shows a year, including one during the Cherry Blossom Festival.

“It’s really beautiful symphonic band music,” Rector said of the planned set list. “It’s not just ‘Jingle Bells.’ ’’

The Middle Georgia Concert Band is in its 20th season and currently has 55 members.

“We’re a community band open to anybody who is usually 17 years or older who has played an instrument in high school or college and wants to keep playing. We always welcome new members,” said Rector, whose major instrument is the French horn. “You just bring your instrument, sit down and start playing.”

This is the first year the local Scottish Rite is holding a Christmas benefit concert, Broom said.

“It’s a very worthy cause and that is sort of what a community band should be doing, trying to build up the community and being an asset to the community,” Rector said.

“Every way we can do that, we should do it, and giving a benefit concert is certainly a way to do it.”

RiteCare Christmas Concert

When: Friday. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.; auction is from 6-7 p.m.; concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

Where: Macon Scottish Rite, 1985 Vineville Ave.

Cost: $10 for ages 12 and older, $5 for those under 12

Information: 745-4025