A former Chapel Hill teacher diagnosed with ALS will be honored with a benefit screening of an REM documentary on Friday at The Cat’s Cradle.

PopUp Chorus will perform at the event.

Vivian Connell calls Friday’s benefit a “perfect circle.”

And yes, that’s an REM reference.

“I saw REM in Athens, probably, 15 times in Athens, from `82 to, maybe, `85,” she recalls, adding she saw them a few more times out-of-town.

She spent her teen years in Greenville, S.C., and was raised in what she calls a conservative home.

But when she went to the University of Georgia in Athens in the early 80s to study veterinary medicine, she landed in one of the hottest music scenes in the nation. Local heroes The B-52s had already gone national, and REM was about to be next.

Connell, then known as Vi Riner, discovered more than just music there. She learned more about art, literature, and social activism. She learned she had a passion for teaching. It wasn’t long before she changed her mind about being a veterinarian.

In 1984, REM played its first-ever benefit show for the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation, and young Vivian took photos for the university’s newspaper, The Red & the Black.

That’s what makes the circle so perfect. On Friday, in her honor, The Cat’s Cradle will present the documentary “REM by MTV.” Proceeds will go to the Public Justice Foundation.

“They do a lot of public interest law on behalf of workers in the health care field, and a lot of social justice issues” said Bertis Downs IV, an attorney who worked with REM for 30 years, with the title of “adviser.”

“And it’s a group that she’s still very close to, and wants to help further their mission by raising a few thousand bucks.”

Downs is a longtime friend of Connell, whom he met through his wife Katherine. The two young women had waited tables together in downtown Athens, back in the early-REM days.

Downs played a big role in putting together Friday’s benefit, along with Lauren Hodge, the founder of PopUp Chorus, which will perform two REM songs at the event.

“It was kind of just a natural,” said Downs. “I mean, they like doing REM stuff. It’s a fun, participatory audience thing.”

Connell’s teenage son Hagan will play guitar for that performance. Her husband Paul and their daughter Hadley will also participate.

The Carrboro screening of “REM by MTV” follows a November premiere at Ciné, an art house cinema in Athens, Ga.

Vivian Connell could not attend that one because of a schedule conflict,

“I said, ‘I’m sorry you can’t make it, but heck, let’s just do one in Chapel Hill,’” said Downs.

A career retrospective

“REM by MTV,” directed by Alex Young, draws on hundreds of hours of archival MTV footage.

“It’s the career of REM,” said Downs, “but seen through the lens of MTV cameras.”

Besides a mutual love for the band, Downs and Connell share a passion for public education, and they’ve worked together as advocates.

Downs said that Connell is an example of someone who’s “living every day,” despite her illness.

“She really cares about stuff,” said Downs. “And if she cares about stuff, she’s going to try to do her best for it.”

Connell was teaching at Providence High School in Charlotte around 2009. As an adviser for a student activism club, she always told students to get involved in their communities, and to speak up.

So she decided to “walk the walk,” as she puts it, and go to law school, so that she could be a better advocate for justice and education. Next, she needed to decide where to move her family, so she could accomplish that.

“I actually reached out to Bertis, because, of course, he’s an attorney,” said Connell, “and I said, ‘What do you think? Athens? Richmond? Chapel Hill?’

“And he said, ‘Oh, my god – hands down, Chapel Hill. That place just suits me down to the ground.’”

A personal victory over ALS

She discovered early ALS symptoms in 2013, around the time she was studying for the bar exam.

“No one was home, and I did a little turn, and my left leg fell out from under me,” she said. “And I noticed that I couldn’t hop on it. And I sort of thought that strange.”

She continued her fitness routine of jogging and walking several times a week, but she knew something was wrong. She put off getting diagnosed, partly because she was occupied with passing the bar. Then in August 2013, her best friend – a physical therapist – noticed her odd gait, and strongly urged her to see a physician.

She saw half a dozen specialists before she was diagnosed with in March 2014. At the time, she was teaching at Phoenix High School in the morning, and Chapel Hill High in the afternoon. She announced her diagnosis on her blog, and asked people to help her raise money to take some Phoenix High students to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She raised $30,000 in three weeks.

And she continues to advocate for public education, and speak out against policies coming from the North Carolina General Assembly.

“I wanted to continue to advocate for the things I believed in,” said Connell, “and do as much as I could until I can’t do anything. And I can still do things. So it’s not time to feel bad. And even when that time comes, I say with complete honesty, I have had such a fortunate life.”

She said that if she can be a model of grace and acceptance to her former students, as well as her own two kids, then she counts that as a victory over ALS.

Advance tickets for the 6:30 p.m. Friday show are $15, and can be purchased at catscradle.com.