Wednesday, August 7, 2013

North Carolina

Today I visited the Wake Boys & Girls Club in Raleigh, NC.  It was actually a suggestion from the always wonderful Amber who many of you know as the virtuoso behind the Costume Box.  So for future reference, I do welcome suggestions for the states I have yet to visit.  Please do share your ideas with me :-)

There are many affiliates of the Boys & Girls Club across the country, and I'm sure most of you are relatively familiar with what they do.  So I'm not going to talk about that here.  What I will say is that while I had my own sense of their mission, actually going to visit one was a completely different experience.  I encourage everyone to look up their local Boys & Girls Club and go see what they are doing in (and for) your community.  And then take one more small step and see what you can do to support them.  There are so many rewarding options for you to make an immense difference in the lives of children.  You do not have to travel far, and it will not take a huge financial or time commitment from you.  I promise you it will be so worth it for you and them!

Now let me tell you about my day.  I wasn't really sure what to expect today, as is really the case for all of the places I visit.  Well, the Wake Boys & Girls Club had an incredible surprise for me today.  When I initially reached out to them, they had indicated that they could use some instruments.  I learned that while some of the kids are able to take music classes at their schools, most of them have to borrow and share their instruments.  Additionally, they are not able to take those instruments home with them to continue practicing.  Imagine trying to learn both music theory and how to play an instrument simply by the limited classroom time one would get on a daily basis!

I ended up purchasing a trumpet and a clarinet for the Wake Boys & Girls Club to give to two students, so that those students had their own instruments to take home with them after school.  I thought I was simply going to deliver those instruments today to be handed out at some later date.  I was very happily wrong about that.  To my pleasant surprise, in walked Olivia and Nicolas to receive their instruments.  But that wasn't all.  They then proceeded to unpack and assemble their instruments, and then even started playing them for me :-)

The clarinet was for Olivia, and the trumpet was for Nicolas.  Olivia already had some experience with the clarinet, so she was able to look up a song on a phone and play it for me.  Nicolas was playing the trumpet for the very first time.  That actually brought back a lot of memories for me, as I was exactly the same age as Nicolas when I started playing my very first instrument in school - which also happened to be a trumpet!  I was fortunate enough to be able to take my trumpet home with me after school every day to practice (alas, it wasn't something I was very good at playing).  So knowing how hard it is to learn for the first time, I was so impressed that after just a few minutes and with some instruction from a math teacher who also plays the trumpet at his church, Nicolas was already getting down the basics of how to blow the trumpet properly.  It was so evident how keen he was to really learn about the trumpet (including proper care and maintenance), and I was beyond ecstatic at having been able to share that experience with both Olivia and Nicolas.





Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Virginia

Music and the arts have the power to heal.  Music and the arts have the power to bring people together.  Music and the arts have the power to provide comfort, companionship, and a sense of belonging.

Today I had the extraordinary pleasure of visiting the Tidewater Arts Outreach (TAO) organization in Norfolk, VA.  TAO truly believes in the many powers of music and the arts, and is committed to bringing those to various places in their community such as dependent care facilities and youth shelters.

As I learned about all of the different approaches TAO takes towards completing their mission, I was so impressed by how much their amazing staff and volunteers are able to do while based out of a couple of small rooms in an office suite.  TAO is all about taking music and the arts to the people and places who need them the most.  Take a look at their Web site and you'll be awed by the amount of artists, programs, and people they are able to leverage, place and reach (and please read more about their wonderful mission because it is something that affects us all in some way or another).

For TAO, I was happy to deliver two acoustic guitars that will find good use in a youth shelter.  One of the programs TAO supports is working with kids who ordinarily may not get second chances (for a variety of reasons).  They have found that by simply engaging these kids and showing them that someone cares about what they do, they can make a really positive change in these kids' lives.  For me that was a strong message of hope, and using music as an instrument to bring that change is all the more rewarding.  I think people (myself once included) often tend to think of music as something that is limited to those that have studied it and have been trained for years in it.  Listening today to how TAO uses music to reach these kids and hearing how the kids respond to it, I can assure you that music really is the universal language.


Monday, August 5, 2013

West Virginia

Today was a great day, for many reasons.

Reason #1

I was fortunate enough to meet some of the most sincere and caring people I have ever met.  They are the individuals responsible for the School of Harmony.  The School of Harmony occupies a building in Beaver, WV previously used as a public school.  In fact some of the aforementioned people whom I met today actually went to that school when it was a regular public school.  That's actually an important point because it speaks volumes to the incredible community of Beaver, WV.  But more on that later.

Today was actually the four year anniversary of the School of Harmony being open in these premises, and I was truly overjoyed and encouraged with what I saw and learned today.  They opened this place and launched this organization with a simple mission - to give the youth of their community something that would spark their imaginations, their creative spirits, and most importantly keep them away from the types of temptations that could otherwise lead them astray.  The School of Harmony also fulfills a vital need not only to the town of Beaver, WV, but also many of the surrounding communities too.  This is yet another area where music and the arts have been all but eliminated from the schools.  These kids, many of whom are also home-schooled, have no where else to go to learn and explore music and the arts.  And they come from many miles and towns away to make use of the School of Harmony (or when they don't have the means to get there, the school takes music instruction to them with their fabulous music mobile!).

Now getting back to the community of Beaver, WV.  I learned today that most of what I saw was made possible by the local community.  They donated money.  The pitched in their skills and lent a hand when help was needed.  They literally transformed an old and dilapidated building in to a truly amazing space for music, art, and now also dance.  And this is a community with strong roots - people who have lived there for generations.  These are the people who grew up there, went to school there, and then made the commitment to make their community better for their children.

So what small act of kindness did I provide?  I was told that the school was desperately in need of some bookcases.  They were previously using some cardboard bookcases that were falling apart, and were being held together by duct tape and supported by milk crates.  I was very happy to arrive and see the new bookcases I had shipped to them all set up and in use :-)

Reason #2

One of the 37 people told me that I should keep a journal of all of my trips on this journey of giving.  There are many things I will often tell this person about my trips that never make it to this blog.  So today I will actually share something with all of you.  I enjoy driving.  Well, certain types of driving, or rather types of "drives".  If you ever get the opportunity to travel on I-64W running through the mountains of VA and WV, do it (especially in the summer).  What an amazing driving experience (I also plan on traveling on Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway this week - so more amazing experiences to come)!  I think my favorite thing about it was seeing all of the butterflies cross the highway as cars sped by.  There were so many beautiful yellow and black butterflies that seemed to just float above the speeding cars without any trouble at all.  I know it sounds cliche, but watching them dance delicately by seemed to make time slow down just for that brief instance.