APPLETON — The 5 Milers, a five-member music group with its roots in Neenah, has found the ideal concert draw: playing folk music of the '60s to benefit community nonprofits.

The group has been around since 1963, and most of the group's members are 1966 graduates of Neenah High School. The group convenes for one week each summer to perform. Its mission when it reunites is to share classic songs with crowds for a good cause.

"What I've found in talking to people is, you say benefit concert and they're all happy about that, but then you mention The Kingston Trio and Peter Paul & Mary and they say, oh, that was the music I grew up with," said Rob Billings, a Fox Valley resident who plays the 12-string guitar and also contributes vocals. "We kind of have our niche. Folk songs, it's all about the words. Everything is acoustic instruments so they're not drowned out. ... It might have a popular tune or something but it's all about the words. Some are about love lost or love refound, or maybe an event. While there are some protest songs and some funny songs and some songs that tell stories, there's nothing really upsetting. It's hard not to leave the concert with a big smile on your face."

The 5 Milers are Billings, Fox Valley upright string bassist Lauren Mai, lead vocalist Terry Bigalke of Hawaii, fiddler Nancy Burleson of Arkansas and Tom W. Jones of Florida, who plays banjo and guitar and arranges songs for the group.

They'll perform at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in downtown Appleton. Tickets cost $15.

Joining the group onstage for two of 30-plus songs is a choir of about 30 youth ages 7 to 14 from the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Fox Valley, one of the nonprofits that benefits from this year's concert proceeds. Thompson Community Center and Rebuilding Together Fox Valley also will receive funds.

Greg Lemke-Rochon, chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Clubs, said the support will help with ongoing operations for the club, which serves an average of almost 1,000 youth per day during the school year and about 700 youth per day during the summer months.

"It certainly would make sense given the nature of the event and the kids that would be involved, to use it for our burgeoning arts program," Lemke-Rochon said. "With the (building) expansion we now have a variety of new performing arts spaces, a music room, a drama room with a little stage, and a dance studio. It's been a gap in our services for a long time that we're really now very happy to start filling."

The J.J. Keller Foundation Inc. is supporting the concert by matching proceeds dollar-for-dollar, up to $5,000. Jim Keller, a member of the executive team at J.J. Keller & Associates, attended high school with most of The 5 Milers.

After expenses and including the foundation's contributions, last summer's The 5 Milers concert raised about $2,500 for Greater Fox Cities Area Habitat for Humanity, St. Joseph Food Program and Rawhide Boys Ranch.

The 5 Milers chose this year's recipients from a list of about 20 Fox Valley nonprofits that the foundation provided.

"All three charities do wonderful things right here in the Valley and that was one of the criteria," Billings said. "We wanted the money to stay in the Valley. It has to be a local agency where the money is local. And secondly, we have to feel it appeals to a wide audience."

On a tour of the Boys & Girls Clubs' newly expanded facility in Appleton, Billings saw the club's new music room.

"I didn't know they had a music room," he said. "I said, 'your boys and girls sing here?' They said yes. I said, 'how would they like to be on stage?'"

And an impromptu choir was born. It's taken off, and the youth can't wait to appear at the PAC with The 5 Milers, said Maggie Frank, health and life skills coordinator at the Boys & Girls Clubs.

At first, Frank said, the youth didn't know what to expect when they heard the phrase "folk music."

"We listened to a little bit of the performances The 5 Milers had done in the past," Frank said. "They got more excited. Two of the band members came in ... and brought their instruments and we got a chance to sing along with them and worked up a pretty good noise level in the room. It was a good sound to hear coming out of that room."

The youth will sing a version of "This Land is Your Land" with The 5 Milers and will serve as an echo during the group's performance of "Baileys Harbor," an original song by Billings.

Frank said the youth want the choir to live on after the concert.

"It's such a need, to continue the arts in the youths' life," she said. "These kids are more than excited just to be a part of something that is not just for the Boys & Girls Clubs. It is for the community."