Singer, actress and artist Leona Coakley-Spring’s 10th annual benefit concert for the All Saints AIDS Shelter in Nassau, Bahamas, will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6 at the Redmond High School Performing Arts Center, 17272 NE 104th St. For tickets, call (425) 882-0216.

A longtime Redmond resident, Coakley-Spring was born in the Bahamas and grew up in a musical family. She came to the United States as a single parent in 1972 and cleaned houses, waitressed and worked with disabled children while attending performing arts and beauty schools in Chicago.

Coakley-Spring’s break in the entertainment business came when she acted and sang in the Chicago Black Ensemble’s musical production, “The Other Cinderella.” She also performed at the famed Wisdom Bridge Theatre as Tituba in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.”

Her AIDS benefit concerts, which are shown on Bahamas television, feature holiday, gospel and Caribbean music.

“At the All Saints AIDS Shelter, there are more than 28 children, most afflicted with the virus, and more than 40 adults with the virus,” Coakley-Spring explained. “Their need is urgent, as they live in little shacks that are leaky. The site of the shelter is an old leper’s colony in the jungles of Nassau. They need food, washers and dryers.”

Residents of the shelter also need personal hygiene items and assistance to pay their electrical bills.

As well as being a performing artist, Coakley-Spring is a cosmetologist known to her clients as “Bahama Mama” and a painter of scenes from the Bahamas. Some of her paintings will be raffled at the Dec. 6 event for the All Saints AIDS Shelter.

For more information, e-mail Leona@Lee4Homes.com.