Thursday, July 12, 2007

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!

7 comments:

Sara said...

Just a few ideas to get ya started . . .

1. stories about trying to learn to play an instrument when growing up?

2. songs that influenced your life at a certain time?

3. what your day would be like without music?

4. why you enjoy a certain genre of music?

5. your favorite singers/song writers & why?

6. concert experiences at different ages growing up - especially if you've seen the same person mutliple times - did you view of them change at all & why

P.S. Fantastic idea!!!!

The Rock Chick said...

Hi Sara!

Those are great ideas to get me started!!! Thank you! I was hoping to work on some of the posts needed ahead of time because, well, 24 hours is a long time to be sitting, writing and thinking of things to write!

Thanks for the suggestions!! I'm also thinking of having a few musician friends of mine "Guest blog" about what music means to them, too!!!

I was worried about 48 posts, but now I'm thinking that might not be enough :)

Jessica

Sara said...

I think that's the way it always works out you worry & then end up running out of time to say everything you want to :) good luck & I look forward to reading the posts, have a great weekend? BTW, how is the young driver doing?

The Rock Chick said...

Sara: Minus one "almost hitting a fire hydrant" incident (I'm not supposed to talk about that :), she is doing great!

Anonymous said...

You are a better woman than I am! I thought about blogging for the cancer society, but was frightened away by the number of posts!
What about featuring different genres of music? Not just rock, but jazz, swing, rap, gospel, blues.
What about featuring influential artists like Robert Johnson?
What about history on some of the famous musicians and how they got their start?
Trivia quizzes about artists? (that will extend to two posts, because one has the answers.
Maybe even have a contest?
Have a poll to see what kind of music folks enjoy?

Jessica Morris said...

You could feature kitchen dishes that make good instruments (ya know, since you probably experienced that with your kiddos, and for all who haven't had that experience we'll know which kitchen items to destroy right now.)

I think it should start off with you singing a song for us =)

You could do a list of your favorite music from movies.

Rewrite a classic song to pertain to your life.

Guest bloggers are a great idea too! Right now I love music because it either keeps me from hearing the baby when he cries, or it makes him forget to cry! =)

The Rock Chick said...

Jessica: I do play a mean set of spoons! Oh, I don't know if I could really sing anymore! It's an idea, though. I could make an attempt to sing something with the band I rock chick for and tape it and see what it sounds like. I might just try that!!

If you'd like to guest blog, I would love to have you and I have no doubt that iPods were invented by a mother or quadruplets. Or teenagers. Either would work!

Jessica