South Whidbey Island musician and songwriter Beverly Graham is noted for her poignant and powerful music, most often performed in support of Operation: Sack Lunch, which Graham founded 14 years ago to provide meals and basic necessities to the homeless children, women and men in Seattle.

Tonight Graham will play for another cause, this one initiated by South Whidbey High School student Kira Hubbard.

“Operation Smile sends teams of plastic surgeons, nurses and doctors to around the world to do reconstructive surgery on children with cleft palate and cleft lip,” Hubbard said. She was instrumental in forming a South Whidbey student chapter of Operation Smile, and will herself accompany a team to Peru in May.

Hubbard hopes to make a monetary contribution to the organization as well as her personal one, raising funds through the benefit concert tonight. Playing with Graham will be her band of local musicians: South Whidbey High School senior Miles Ranisavljevic on bass, Larry Neubauer on piano, Kim Jones with back-up vocals and Ken Wright, drums and percussion.

A trio of young musicians called The Wicked Ladies will join them on stage. Colleen Johnson, Anne Bateman and Stephanie Metz have been playing together at music gatherings sponsored by the South Whidbey Youth Center Leadership Council.

“We’ve been wanting to do a concert on stage for a long time,” Johnson said.

“We’ll be doing some new songs and some older ones, mostly blue-grassy,” she said. “One of them, ‘Lady Wisdom,’ is about how people view the world. It’s an empowerment song.”

The Ladies will also sing “Amazing Grace” and “Blackbird” during a showing of an Operation Smile video, which Johnson said is “extremely powerful.”

Beverly Graham will perform some of her signature work, as well as some pieces from her CD “Guardian,” which are “a little more controversial,” she said. “Most of the songs are about responsibility toward others.”

The concert will be very much “an island thing,” Graham said. “People will enjoy it. There won’t be any pressure, we can all play and have a good time.”

It also is a chance for young talent to be showcased.

“I really like to give kids an opportunity to get up on stage,” Graham said. “And it’s a good pitch for their cause.”

For more information about Operation Smile go to www.operationsmile.org.