Give A Little Bit

Scroll down one post for my Thursday Thirteen #22



Starting at 8:00 am Central Time on July 28, 2007, I will be participating in Blogathon 2007. If you’re not familiar with the Blogathon, philanthropic bloggers participate by agreeing to blog for 24 hours straight (with a new post every 30 minutes!) in order to raise money for the charity of their choice. Fortunately, I am an insomniac and according to one recent online psychological test also a “tortured genius” so, hopefully, I should be able to come up with something interesting to talk about.

I have chosen VH1 Save The Music Foundation as my charity of choice. Quoting directly from their site they are “a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in America’s public schools and raising awareness about the importance of music as a part of each child’s complete education.” A complete description including how funds are allocated is directly available on their site, as well.

Cutbacks in music education programs are happening all over this country. It happened in the school district my children attend two years ago. We went from having a nationally recognized music program within our elementary schools to absolutely nothing at all because of budget cuts. Fortunately, due to the passing of a tax referendum within my community, our program is back. Not every community is so lucky.

VH1 says it way better than I can. This is also from their site. “Research has shown that musical study develops critical thinking and self discipline skills and improves a child's early cognitive development, basic math and reading abilities, self-esteem, SAT scores, ability to work in teams, spatial reasoning skills, and school attendance. Also, researchers have found that children involved with music education are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college, and are less likely to be involved with gangs and substance abuse.”

If these things weren’t enough, music and performing is just good, clean FUN!

If you would like to sponsor me and support saving music education programs in schools across the country, just click here! You can do so ahead of time or during the event. Your tax-deductible donation in any amount of your choosing (even a dollar helps!) will be made directly to the VH1 Save The Music Foundation. If you have any questions at all, everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the event can be found at Blogathon 2007.

As we get closer to the Blogathon event, I will post some more of my thoughts and personal stories about the positive effects music education has had in my life. I would also LOVE it if anyone would share some blogging suggestions/ideas/things they’d like to see me talk about/questions with me. Coming up with at least 48 blog posts requires a lot of ideas!

Let's get this party started!