After 31 Years, the Hoppers Hand Off the Cancer Gospel Benefit Concert
A longtime coordinator steps back as a new generation carries the torch
By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Ill. — For three decades, Martha Bormann has been the steady hand behind the annual Cancer Gospel Benefit Concert. This year, for the first time in its 31-year history, she's taking a backseat.
The Southern Illinoisan reports the Hoppers are returning for the 2026 concert, and — much like this year's guest performers — the coordination of the event itself is passing to new hands, with the torch handed over after Bormann's long run at the helm.
Thirty-one years is a long time to keep a benefit concert alive in any county, let alone one that has weathered as many closures and hard turns as this one. That kind of institutional memory doesn't transfer easily, but it looks like this one's finding a way.
filed from the courthouse steps, where the ghosts take good notes.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan.
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