Staff Writer

As she rehearsed Tuesday for her performance tonight at the second annual Stand Up to Cancer talent show, Scarborough High School junior Sophie Stewart got some encouragement from senior Natalie Pauwels.

“You can’t get nervous now,” Pauwels told Stewart, “You are going to have at least 100 people looking at you.”

Stewart, who has been playing guitar for two years, said she hopes taking the stage at the benefit for the Stand Up to Cancer Foundation will help cure her stage fright. Stewart was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 5, and said the show was a cause she was ready to join.

The $3 donations for the show go to a foundation that senior Teall DiBiase said she discovered after seeing a benefit show in New York about two years ago.

She came home determined to organize and produce a benefit at the high school and began enlisting her friends to help.

This year, the show was expanded to include other students, partly because the five-girl show of music, songs and a slide presentation last year was “really stressful,” DiBiase said.

DiBiase, Pauwels, junior Whitney Scales and sophomore Mariah Volk return as the Stand Up to Cancer Girls to sing and dance, and will be joined by freshman Brie Roche.

Each also has worked to organize the show and selected 15 acts and performers from the 18 that auditioned. They’ve guided rehearsals, timed the show and rehearsed their own material since December.

Roche said seeing last year’s show made her want to take the stage, even if the dance numbers are a departure from Broadway songs she is used to singing onstage.

“I like working with people who are older. I can learn a lot and this has been very inspiring,” Roche said.

Pauwels said she initially was reluctant to help with the show last year.

“Teall stalked me, she cornered me in the hallway,” she joked.

DiBiase is a clear leader organizing the show, but said the five have learned to listen and rely on each other.

“This has drawn us closer,” Volk said.

Volk and Scales said they have seen family members diagnosed or die from cancer and, like Stewart, were drawn to the cause.

Getting students to audition was not as difficult as getting everyone’s schedule coordinated for the show, Scales said.

Stewart, who said her leukemia is in remission, was so young when diagnosed she didn’t always understand what was happening as she was treated.

It was not until Tuesday that she decided she would sing “Suds in the Bucket,” a song by Sara Evans about a girl eloping. She said she enjoys playing country songs and got rid of fake fingernails she wore when her music teacher told her they would hurt her playing.

“I’m more comfortable with other songs, but this is the best one I sing,” she said.

The talent show begins at 7 p.m. at Winslow Homer Auditorium at Scarborough High School.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219