Members of the touring group, Messages Which Are Hopeful!, perform "Don't Laugh at Me" during a Friday afternoon show at Abingdon High School. The performing arts troupe passes along messages of coping and self-control through entertainment.

Wearing distressed jeans, a T-shirt, flip-flops and a cowboy hat, 15-year-old Michael Todd Emery crooned the lyrics to "Wait Awhile," a song he wrote himself and debuted during Friday's assembly for middle school and high school students in the Abingdon High School auditorium.

Through Emery's song about abstinence and other songs, as well as high-energy hip hop dance and skits on issues from racism and hate crimes to bullying and jealousy, the Chicago-area group spun a positive message from tough topics.

"When violence is used as a way to deal with problems, that's not what love is all about," said 10-year-old David "DC" Scarzone during a skit about abusive teen dating relationships.

MWAH! - which stands for Messages Which Are Hopeful! - is a seven-member troupe of performers ranging in age from 10 to 18 who live in the western suburbs of Aurora, Naperville, Elmhurst and Wheaton.

The group performed at Galesburg High School in November of last year. Abingdon High School Principal Chad Cox and middle school principal Stan Adcock attended that performance.

Cox said teenagers are constantly being told not to do certain things and how to act in certain situations, but he said he hopes the students take away a very important message from the MWAH! performance.

Joanne Murdock drove that message home for the students. Surrounded by pictures of her teenage son, Ryan, a Rockridge High School graduate who was killed in an alcohol-related car crash in 2005, Murdock brought many students to tears with her pleas for teenagers to think about their actions.

The 90-minute assembly also featured guest performances by two eighth-grade students from Wethersfield Junior High School in Kewanee who attended a MWAH! show in May.

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