#1 - Hands Across the Sea

Time to get this show on the road!

I figured I'd start out with a little tribute entry to the charity I was originally considering. My former orchestra teacher, Brendan Slocumb, has created a charitable organization called Hands Across the Sea. He had the idea after visiting the Philippines and working with an alternative school for at-risk students. It has been shown time and time again that at-risk students benefit from music programs, by giving them something productive to concentrate on. Understanding music also tends to help students with math, because it is all about recognizing patterns.

Unfortunately, this area in the Philippines is very poor, and the school cannot afford music programs. So Mr. Slocumb saw another way to help. Hands Across adopted a family. The money that the organization has raised has gone to cleaning up this family's life. They've been given the opportunity to visit a dentist for the first time in their lives. They've been given good shoes and clothes. As Hands Across grows, they hope to raise more money for the community, and give everybody these opportunities.

I was not able to blog for Hands Across the Sea because the paperwork has not yet gone through to make it an official 501(c)3. However, I know that Mr. Slocumb was on to something when he had the idea to bring music to underprivileged students. That is exactly what I want to do. I was fortunate enough to go to school in a fairly wealthy district, where instrumental music programs were the norm. I think that every student, regardless of how much money they have, should have this opportunity. I guess I can't say exactly how much it helped me, since I don't know what it's like to not grow up around music. But I do know that my classes with Mr. Slocumb helped me grow - not only as a musician, but as a person. Everybody deserves that chance to grow.