High school students are getting creative in their campaign against gun violence, staging a “Concert for Our Lives” on Maui with stars including Jack Johnson and Willie Nelson, as well as “March for Our Lives” events on Saturday.

The musical lineup also features Landon McNamara, Steven Tyler, Mick Fleetwood, Kris Kristofferson, Lily Meola and even Willie K, who has been limiting his performances while undergoing treatment for lung cancer.

For freshman Rachel Zisk of King Kekaulike High School, a march and concert organizer, the mass shooting on the other side of the country on Feb. 14 felt especially close to home.

Her cousin Leah Ronkin is a sophomore at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Ronkin and dozens of classmates hunkered down in a closet in the drama building while 14 students and three staff members were shot dead nearby.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

“I was so close to losing my cousin, and I don’t want anyone to ever experience that,” said Zisk, who is 15. “It makes me so sad that people had to experience losing their family members. My goal for this is just to have less victims in the future.”

Ronkin, 16, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser by phone that she is heartened by the student-led movement to end gun violence in schools.

“The activism is giving me a lot of hope,” Ronkin said. “It’s showing that people aren’t going to be broken down by this. They are going to use this and stand up.”

Marches will be held across the country, from Maui to Maine, on Saturday, with the biggest turnout expected in Washington, D.C. Ronkin and her family members are heading to the nation’s capital to take part in that one.

Locally, at least two big “March for Our Lives” rallies are planned by students on Oahu. One will gather at Ala Moana Beach Park next to McCoy Pavilion from 9 to 11 a.m. There will be speeches, songs and poetry by students from various high schools, including Farrington, Moanalua, Punahou, Kaiser, Kalani, Assets, Waipahu, Le Jardin Academy and Hawaii Technology Academy.

“We are doing this to stand with and support the survivors of the Stoneman Douglas shooting,” said Emily Bender, a Punahou sophomore, who is helping organize it. “I believe we must take action on the issue of gun violence, especially in schools, places of worship and other places that should be safe.”

The other event is set for the state Capitol, with a march setting off at 10:30 a.m. and circling the downtown area, stopping at the Federal Building as well as the Department of Education, before returning to the Capitol at noon for a rally.

On Maui a March for Our Lives will be held at from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on the Great Lawn of the University of Hawaii Maui College, with the concert following at 5:30 p.m. at the Maui Arts &Cultural Center in Kahului.

A group of students from public and private high schools across the island are staging the march and concert, which is distributing tickets via Eventbrite. Tickets are free for students, including those in college, with student IDs. Tickets for the general public are $10 but were sold out as of Tuesday. More may be made available.

“We’re expecting 5,000 people at the concert,” said Zisk, who will be speaking at the march along with other students.

All the musicians are donating their talents. Proceeds will be donated to organizations supporting Maui youth and those working on a national level to end gun violence in schools.

The concert organizers describe themselves online as “a group of Maui high school students who have come together to demand Congress pass legislation to stop gun violence in our schools.”

The two cousins are calling for more open dialogue about solutions, saying there is room for compromise to enhance safety.

“I feel like there should be a lot more listening between the different sides,” Ronkin said. “It seems like there’s kind of a misunderstanding on both sides.”

Zisk said people need to discuss the issue thoughtfully and sort it out.

“It’s not just guns or no guns; there needs to be a discussion to find the middle ground,” Zisk said. “All we want is there to be less victims, and we don’t want children to die in school. I feel like that’s so common-­sense, it’s crazy that we even have to fight for it.”