A group of local high school students are joining forces to raise money for the special-needs kids at their schools and elsewhere.

Last year, a group of Simi Valley High School students started a charity festival called “Jam 4 a Cause” in an effort to raise money for the Amanda McPherson Foundation. The organization supports youth athletic programs in Ventura County as well as research for curing congenital heart conditions.

“We have a lot of special needs kids at our school, but we never get to interact with them,” said cofounder of the event, SVHS senior Allie Vogel. “High school is a kind of narcissistic time in life. We wanted to create a festival to raise money for the foundation, but more than that, we wanted to get high school kids involved in actual community service and do something on a larger scale.”

Allie said there were many obstacles to overcome in their inaugural year, including a lack of seed money and skepticism from school officials and classmates. But the group drew more than 700 people to the event, raising $3,000.

And this year, with the involvement of students from Apollo and Santa Susana high schools, the group has even bigger goals.

The Battle of the Bands event has 23 bands on the schedule. Local Miss Teenage California Mary-Kate Fitzpatrick and hypnotist Jason Vogel will also attend.

Allie said their goal is to bring in 5,000 people and raise $25,000 for the organization.

The group has created a website for the event, and they hope to spread their charity festival model.

“There’s already a girl who’s called me from Orange County who is going to start a Jam 4 a Cause event,” Allie said. “As ASB president of the school, I meet other school leaders and get to tell them about our efforts at our school. Eventually, this can go to a place where it spreads throughout the nation.

The festival is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow at Simi Valley High School’s east parking lot at the corner of Stow and Cochran streets.

For more information, visit Jam4acause.org.