A concert featuring a unique collaboration between the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra and alternative rock band Sister Hazel will help support medical missions around the world.

The concert, to be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct 23, in Kenan Auditorium on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, will benefit New Hanover Regional Medical Center’s Mission Ready program.

The Mission Ready program collects medical supplies that can’t be used in the United States and makes them available in areas where they are desperately needed, hospital officials said.

“We’re very excited to support this effort to help people around the world,” Dr. Damian Brezinski, founder of Chords for a Cause, said in a prepared statement.

Chords for a Cause is a Wilmington Health non-profit group that uses music to bring people together to aid charitable endeavors, hospital officials said.

“When we see how limited the medical resources are in places like Haiti and know there are lives that can be saved by getting supplies to them, we have to act,” Brezinski said.

The NHRMC Mission Ready program recovers medical and surgical supplies that would otherwise be disposed of because they have been opened or have passed the expiration date. Supplies such as gloves, sutures, drapes, gowns and other items used in hospitals may not meet standards for domestic use, but are enthusiastically welcomed in counties where the U.S. discards are of far better quality then what is available there, hospital officials said.

By setting up a formal process for collecting, inventorying and processing  supplies for distribution to qualified medical mission groups, New Hanover Regional Medical Center supports the work of the missions to help people in need, while eliminating waste.