Abby Nadeau
Community Editor

What do 12 nuns, a piano player, and a relay race have to do with each other?

While this may seem like an awful joke gone even more wrong, there is a connection.

Cancer. Actually, the connection is a cure for cancer.

The destructive disease that has torn many families apart is bringing millions of people together to fund cancer research.

In honor of those who have been affected by cancer or lost someone to cancer, a group of Forest Lake residents have joined together to put on a benefit concert for the Forest Lake Relay for Life.

ìBack in the Habit,î directed by Forest Lake native Matt Haider, is a concert that has a Hollywood feel to it.

Haider, a 21 year old college student and an accomplished pianist, got the idea for ìBack in the Habitî from the movie ìSister Act,î with actress Whoopi Goldberg.

Goldberg plays a former lounge singer, from a fictional Las Vegas ìMoonlightî lounge, who is forced to live in a monastery for the witness protection program.

When she is asked what former monastery she was at, she responds ìthe sisters of the moonlight.î

With the movie in mind, Haider and his own ìSisters of the Moonlightî have revamped some of the songs from the movie and added their own touches.

The Forest Lake ìSisters of the Moonlightî are made up from a group of women from a variety of backgrounds.

ìSome of the women are from the recent production of the Sound of Music with Masquers Theatre,î Haider said.

Haider said he approached the Sound of Music group and asked them to sing, many of which accepted.

ìSome of these women in this show are doctors, others are teachers. We even have a couple people who have a degree in music,î Haider said. ìSome are recent high school graduates and others are in their ë50s, I think thatís what is cool about the group.î

With Haider on the piano and a live band, the ìSistersî will sing a variety of music from a South American freedom song, to a European chant melody to several ë60s styled songs.

Part of the show will include ìthe two Nancysî telling clean Catholic nun jokes.

ìThere will also be a few songs dedicated to those touched by cancer,î Haider said.

Haider, like so many others has also been affected by cancer.

Touching close

to home

When Haider was in first grade, his grandma Margie saw something in him that no one else did.

ìShe saw the interest I had in music,î Haider said. ìShe encouraged my parents to get me involved.î

Haider and his grandma ìdid music togetherî until she died of cancer in 2001. For Haider, it was his second loss to cancer with another grandparent passing in 1998.

Although Haider lost two of his grandparents to cancer, he was involved with Relay for Life much earlier, and for different reasons.

ìA family friend was singing as a part of the entertainment for the event here in Forest Lake and I was her pianist,î Haider said. ìUp until that point, I had not been involved with the Relay at all. I found out how great of an event that it was and the next year I was on a team with other members of St. Peterís Parish.î

Haider became so involved with the Relay that he created the ìSisters of the Moonlightî as a benefit concert.

On Saturday, July 29, at 7 p.m. Haider will present ìBack in the Habitî a benefit concert for the Forest Lake Relay for Life at Hosanna Lutheran Church.

No tickets will be sold to the event, so Haider recommends coming early to get a seat. A free will offering will be taken at the show. All proceeds from the event go to the American Cancer Society.

The show will be presented at Hosanna Lutheran Church, located at 9300 Scandia Trail N. (TH-97), in Forest Lake.

For more information about the Forest Lake Relay for Life being held on Friday and Saturday August 4 and 5 visit www.acsevents.org/relay/mn/forestlake.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605