The Topeka Blues Society (TBS) hosted an instrument drive, and accepted donations, at Uncle Bo’s on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 6 & 7. As a result of the generosity of our members and attendees, TBS was able to donate $800 and an acoustic resonator guitar to Blue Star Connection during their instrument drive at Knuckleheads in Kansas City on Friday, November 13th.
The Topeka Blues Society also collected four guitars, one bass guitar, two gig bags for guitars, and one keyboard. These instruments will be given by the Topeka Blues Society to local children in need. A big thank you to instrument donors Jerry Armstrong, Paul Schwartz, Gib Ramirez, Joel Edison and Supersonic Music. TBS would also like to thank Bart Walker and Lauren Anderson for insuring our successful weekend, and rockin’ the house!John Catt, founder of Blues Star Connection (BSC), said “I want to say thank you to all of our Topeka friends for raising money for Blue Star Connection last weekend. The money was so unexpected and very generous. Can’t say thanks enough.” Catt will use the cash donation to buy more instruments for his drive.
Over 1500 music therapists were attending the American Music Therapy Association convention being held the same weekend as the Blue Star Connection event at Knuckleheads. Catt gave all donated instruments to the music therapists. Maggie Rodgers, musical therapist convention attendee, is thankful for so many guitars and keyboards. “Think about how many clients will benefit from this tremendous gift of music,” she exclaimed.
Blue Star Connection’s mission is to provide access and ownership of musical instruments for children and young adults with cancer and other serious challenges. They also provide music therapy departments with instruments.
Since 2005, Blue Star Connection has been gifting children and young adults with their own personal instruments, providing musical lessons and sending them to live music shows. They have branched out from only providing individual kids with instruments to outfitting the music therapy programs at children’s hospitals across the United States.
To see an example of how music therapy works, check out Rock Your Speech, which leverages the power of music to build language skills in children who are working to overcome a speech disorder. http://rockyourspeech.com/. For more information, go to www.bluestarconnection.org
Attached are photos of guitars donated to the Music Therapists gathered in Kansas City.
