NILES — Despite his band’s name, Steve Reed, director of Lake Effect Jazz Big Band, does not expect to bring any rain during the group’s 6:30 p.m. performance Thursday at Niles Riverfront Park.

He said the evening should be beautiful for the Niles Summer Concert Series performance.

Reed and 20 members will bring saxophones, trombones, trumpets, guitars, vocals and percussion instruments to the park’s amphitheater stage in a classic big band setup and set list, with a smattering of more modern songs.

The band has performed at the concert series before.

“Last year was quite exciting,” he said. “We had a great crowd, nice weather and a great performance. The band likes it.”

Like its 2018 performance, Lake Effect will perform while its partnering nonprofit, Meals on Wheels of Southwest Michigan, will raise awareness of its efforts to feed elderly patients across the region, especially those who are homebound.

Linda Strohl, executive director of the local Meals on Wheels, said she loves Niles, and she is cognizant of the food challenges some of its residents face.

“The Niles route has gone from 20 to 25 clients to over 50 in the past three to four years,” she said. “The homebound meal route is really growing.”

Last fiscal year, the nonprofit’s staff and volunteers served 66,000 meals to seniors in senior centers and more than 144,000 meals to homebound seniors in Berrien, Cass and Van Buren counties.

This year, Strohl said the homebound rate will has likely grown by about 10 percent.

She said that makes finding enough volunteers for the program important, as Meals on Wheels does not want to place any of those it helps on a waiting list.

Meals on Wheels will inform concert attendees about its volunteer opportunities and accept donations. At a June concert that was part of the series, it raised enough money to sponsor seven weeks of meals for a Niles resident.

“We so enjoy being a part of this, and we’re so grateful to Niles to put on these concerts and having this model where people can make donations to local nonprofits,” Strohl said.

Reed is happy to support for Meals on Wheels of Southwest Michigan.

“We do a lot of fundraisers for a lot of different organizations, and Meals on Wheels is certainly a worthy cause,” he said

As the nonprofit accepts monetary and voluntary donations, Lake Effect will play big band hits of the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s, with hits by people such as Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole and Frank Sinatra intermingled.

Latin and Cuban-influenced music will also be performed, with special solos by the band’s percussion section.

“What stands out to me is that our audiences are growing every single year when we go to the various communities,” Reed said. “We’re seeing more and more enthusiasm for big band jazz, which is very exciting for us.”

The performance is part of a summer-long series of Lake Effect performances across southwest Michigan.

As with any performance of the 19-year-old group, Reed said the variety of live music draws the crowd out, and the crowd’s “good vibes” draws the band in to perform.

“The people love that music, so it’s kind of nostalgic for the people that show up,” he said.