The Mars-based bluegrass band Well Strung opened the Roots Rally at Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Warrendale yesterday to fundraise for the Marshall Middle School Kids for Wish Kids Club and the Highmark Caring Place. From left are Stephanie Green, Jeff Scheller, Corey Wood and Valerie Wood. Eddie Trizzino/Butler Eagle

WARRENDALE — By age 8, Riley Scheller already was learning to play American roots music on her fiddle; a style she learned to appreciate from her dad, Jeff Scheller.

Riley died of a brain tumor at the age of 11 in 2008, but yesterday some of her favorite songs in the folk, bluegrass and country genres blasted from Jergel’s Rhythm Grille. Throughout the afternoon, multiple bands played to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Greater Pennsylvania and West Virginia and the Highmark Caring Place, which Scheller said helped his family and Riley when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Scheller’s band, Well Strung, opened the second edition of the Roots Rally to a door crowd that he said was better than that of the inaugural event in 2019. He said he had been unable to have the event since 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Scheller’s top goal was to raise $2,000 to memorialize his daughter, but his secondary mission was to give people a place to hear several interpretations of roots music in one place.

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Jeff Scheller organized the Roots Rally music event Sunday to benefit Make-A-Wish and the Highmark Caring Place, which are two organizations that helped his family when his daughter, Riley, was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. Eddie Trizzino/Butler Eagle