Fermata Nowhere is UMass Lowell’s all-female a capella group. (Courtesy photo)

UMass Lowell’s first all-female a capella group put on a charity event to support the American Heart Association. Partnering with local and on campus a capella groups, ‘A capella for A Cause’ helped raise money and awareness for the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women campaign on February 27.

Being performed just a few days before national women’s history month, A Capella For A Cause helped to not only raise money to support research on heart disease but to raise awareness in women about the discreet signs of heart trouble.

“Women, when having a heart attack, their symptoms are not as noticeable as men.” Riley Ryan, Fermata Nowhere’s president, told the Connector about the dangerous realm of heart attacks for women. Ryan continued, “Women can have a sore back, a sore arm or your shoulder feels funny… you can ignore it for too long, so awareness is the most important part.”

Due to the all-female aspect of Fermata Nowhere, they felt like really connected to this topic, but it was also a topic that related to everyone as Ryan bluntly pointed out “Everyone has a heart.”

Connecting back to the all women aspect of Fermata, Christina Ruggiero who manages the public relations,  said “As an all female group, we are really into female empowerment… and showing off how strong a woman can be.” Fermata, alongside the other UMass Lowell student ran groups, come from a varied background from both culture and majors. Fermata wanted to give this message to any women out there that “Any woman can sing if she wants to… you don’t have to be the best, you just have to be in it, with us.”

To support all this female empowerment and passion, Fermata Nowhere invited seven other groups and some guest speakers to both entertain and inform the full auditorium of Cumnock. These guests included UMass Lowell’s other A Capella groups; Vocality, The Hawkettes and Hawkapella. This marked the very first time these four prestigious groups have all performed together.

“It’s not about Fermata,” says Vice President Victoria Calcagno, “it’s completely about the cause we’re promoting. “ When asked about whether this was friendly completion or just a learning experience Calcagno responded with, “It’s not about each group, it’s not a competition.  It’s all about all of us getting together raising awareness.”

After the show was finished there were two last orders of business to address for Fermata and company. First was stressing how important heart health is, whether it be man or woman. And second was a bit of self-promotion with their very own Fermata Fest, Take 2! This Fermata ran festival runs on April 2nd at University Crossing at seven PM.

For more information of heart health or to help donate to an amazing charity visit donatenow.heart.org.