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your gift of Time, Talent, or Treasure will provide students, teachers, and classrooms in need of opportunity the chance to learn through the joy of making music! To dedicate your donation for the Early Childhood Education Music Initiative, please type ECE in the Tribute Section
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Play It Forward - Ukes for Day Cares & Head Starts
Every Child Matters and You Can Make the Music Possible!
This winter and spring, hundreds of early childhood teachers, serving in childcare centers, home daycares, federally (under)funded preschools and transitional kindergarten classrooms have started training in early childhood music leadership with us for free! These dedicated educators are quickly becoming music makers, most with no prior musical experience. They want to bring singing and music making back to early childhood education. Restoring and leading the music will help their young students develop language, self-expression, a wide range of skills, self-awareness, discipline, cooperation, and even a sense of purpose. This kind of learning is transformative, and the teachers are taking their own time without compensation so they can learn to lead the way. They need and deserve our collective help.
This special campaign can begin to make up for over three decades of budget cuts to the Arts that undercut music education when these teachers were going to school. Most have never played a musical instrument or had any singing instruction. But they are enthusiastic, and are showing up on Saturdays to learn to sing, play ukulele, write songs for learning, and teach all of this to the children in their care. Particularly in under-resourced communities, this campaign will be a game changer, and the teachers will see it through.
The big goal now is to provide these teachers with small sets of student ukuleles to be shared each day. Ukes are the perfect starter instrument for very young children. They fit their small bodies and hands. Their sound creates a sense of peace and calm. Strumming over a beautiful chord, holding the tiny instrument over their hearts and tummies, the children develop amazing rhythm, the ability to sing in tune, learn to sing entire songs, and this helps them to develop their vocabulary, to state needs, ask questions, tell stories, and share their feelings. What could be more important for a young child? The way we teach at GITC, ukuleles support the whole process. We invite you to watch videos from our classrooms around the U.S. to see the work in action where teachers facilitate this brilliantly once they get a little free training, and the learning never ends.
This spring, please help our charity make musical dreams come true with your tax-deductible donation of any amount. Our longtime sponsor, Saga Musical Instruments, is making it possible to purchase two of their bright, cheery, Diamond Head ukuleles for the price of one when you contribute. We call this campaign Play it Forward, because when you help one child, and Saga doubles your gift, those two ukuleles will be shared by as many as six children in a GITC early childhood classroom.
Between now and June, we are training early childhood educators who collectively serve over 40,000 young children each and every day! Each one needs a starter set of instruments. Together, we can all make this possible. Here is how.
Normally, one good student ukulele costs between $45 and $50. But your tax deductible donation of $20 will allow us to purchase one ukulele, and a gift of $40 will purchase two! One ukulele is shared very intentionally by three children. One strums, one leads the singing, and one plays a percussion instrument. Then they trade, and trade again. Eventually everyone begins to sing while playing but this takes practice! Through sharing these musical roles, everyone succeeds together. The music and fun is its own reward. And your kind gift can make this possible. These instruments are kept safe, and treated with care and respect. The children learn to treat the instruments as the precious gifts they are and the good friends they become.
GITC launched this initiative last winter, and thanks to many friends, (you may have been one!) we were able to raise a total of $6500 through two fundraisers to get this effort started. That meant we could distribute one leadership ukulele and one student ukulele to each teacher trainee. Now each of the participating teachers needs three more ukes to get started with their students.
Your gift will mean the world to them.
Our total fundraising goal for this new 2024 campaign is $18,000. That seems like a lot, but when someone gives, no matter the size of the donation, we get a step closer. Bigger gifts are amazing and they go the distance, and also, small gifts are super important - it's incredible how quickly they can add up when we all help out! Do you want to see the music in early childhood revive, and hear the sound of children singing their own special songs? Then please join us! Together we can make this difference.
With gratitude, optimism, and commitment to building a brighter future,
This special campaign can begin to make up for over three decades of budget cuts to the Arts that undercut music education when these teachers were going to school. Most have never played a musical instrument or had any singing instruction. But they are enthusiastic, and are showing up on Saturdays to learn to sing, play ukulele, write songs for learning, and teach all of this to the children in their care. Particularly in under-resourced communities, this campaign will be a game changer, and the teachers will see it through.
The big goal now is to provide these teachers with small sets of student ukuleles to be shared each day. Ukes are the perfect starter instrument for very young children. They fit their small bodies and hands. Their sound creates a sense of peace and calm. Strumming over a beautiful chord, holding the tiny instrument over their hearts and tummies, the children develop amazing rhythm, the ability to sing in tune, learn to sing entire songs, and this helps them to develop their vocabulary, to state needs, ask questions, tell stories, and share their feelings. What could be more important for a young child? The way we teach at GITC, ukuleles support the whole process. We invite you to watch videos from our classrooms around the U.S. to see the work in action where teachers facilitate this brilliantly once they get a little free training, and the learning never ends.
This spring, please help our charity make musical dreams come true with your tax-deductible donation of any amount. Our longtime sponsor, Saga Musical Instruments, is making it possible to purchase two of their bright, cheery, Diamond Head ukuleles for the price of one when you contribute. We call this campaign Play it Forward, because when you help one child, and Saga doubles your gift, those two ukuleles will be shared by as many as six children in a GITC early childhood classroom.
Between now and June, we are training early childhood educators who collectively serve over 40,000 young children each and every day! Each one needs a starter set of instruments. Together, we can all make this possible. Here is how.
Normally, one good student ukulele costs between $45 and $50. But your tax deductible donation of $20 will allow us to purchase one ukulele, and a gift of $40 will purchase two! One ukulele is shared very intentionally by three children. One strums, one leads the singing, and one plays a percussion instrument. Then they trade, and trade again. Eventually everyone begins to sing while playing but this takes practice! Through sharing these musical roles, everyone succeeds together. The music and fun is its own reward. And your kind gift can make this possible. These instruments are kept safe, and treated with care and respect. The children learn to treat the instruments as the precious gifts they are and the good friends they become.
GITC launched this initiative last winter, and thanks to many friends, (you may have been one!) we were able to raise a total of $6500 through two fundraisers to get this effort started. That meant we could distribute one leadership ukulele and one student ukulele to each teacher trainee. Now each of the participating teachers needs three more ukes to get started with their students.
Your gift will mean the world to them.
Our total fundraising goal for this new 2024 campaign is $18,000. That seems like a lot, but when someone gives, no matter the size of the donation, we get a step closer. Bigger gifts are amazing and they go the distance, and also, small gifts are super important - it's incredible how quickly they can add up when we all help out! Do you want to see the music in early childhood revive, and hear the sound of children singing their own special songs? Then please join us! Together we can make this difference.
With gratitude, optimism, and commitment to building a brighter future,
Jessica Baron
Founder, Executive Director
Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom
https://www.guitarsintheclassroom.org
Founder, Executive Director
Guitars and Ukes in the Classroom
https://www.guitarsintheclassroom.org
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