One thing that members of rock, punk and hip-hop bands all have in common is they all learned how to be musicians at some point in their lives, and teamed with the "Savin' Sanity" benefit, they want to make sure children have that same opportunity in the future.

Strike.Fire.Fall, The Daily Supplement, The Rudys, Himalayas and Alchemy will all take the stage beginning at 8:30 tonight at Crowbar, 420 E. College Ave., for "Savin' Sanity," a benefit for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

Derek Dureka (senior-recreation and park management), "Savin' Sanity" management and budgeting director, said the show is a group assignment he and nine other students in his Recreation and Park Management 356 (Programming in Recreation Services) class have been working on since mid-September.

"We wanted to really do something significant," Dureka said. "One of the guys in our group came up with the idea to make it a benefit for VH1 Save the Music."

He said the goal of the VH1 Save the Music Foundation is to raise money to buy instruments for school districts in which music programs have been eliminated or are in jeopardy of being eliminated because of cuts in funds.

"It has been proven that children who are involved with music at school get better grades in their other subjects as well, so I feel that it is very important to help fund these programs," Dureka said. "I'm already looking forward to planning another show in the spring, and hopefully students will continue to put on 'Savin' Sanity' every year. It would really be cool to have helped start a tradition with this."

He said he has learned that working with a group of nine is not easy, and finding sponsors for an event is a lot harder than he thought it would be. A few members of the group had helped put on small concerts before, but never anything this involved.

Dureka said out of the 50 or so businesses the group approached, only a few agreed to donate items or advertising space. He added that the group had basically no funding, and whatever money spent came out of the pockets of the members of the group.

Dureka said that while planning the event, one of the group's main goals was to have an eclectic mix of bands participate, from hip-hop to punk rock.

"There is something for everyone at this show, and it's a cheap ticket as well," he said.

Scott Schuman, drummer for The Daily Supplement, said he thinks the cause of the VH1 Save the Music Foundation is a very important one, especially because he started playing drums in seventh grade as part of his school's jazz band.

"Three of the guys in our band were in the jazz band; that has inspired us to kind of progress the sound of our own band as well," he said. "The school music program also helped us be musically motivated."

Schuman said he played in his school's band all throughout high school, and he thinks it's really cool that organizers of "Savin' Sanity" have planned a great event.

"People can come out and have fun and see some great bands, while also helping to fund the education of musicians who they may be going to see in the future," he said.

Dave Wells, director of operations for Crowbar, said the students came to him with the idea, which seemed like a good cause, and they had put a lot of effort into planning it, so he thought it would be great to make it happen.

"In a venue that survives strictly on music, it's obvious that this cause is important to us," Wells said. "We've always been all about the music."