But look closer --

• See the kid who is accepted and no longer bullied?

• How about the angry kid who lashes out with a song instead of anger?

• Or the shy kid who can finally say what he wants to say?

• Did you miss the kid who now has something to soothe her ears and her mind when her parents are fighting... again?

 Sure it's about guitars and the "gift of music" -- but it has much deeper meaning to lots of kids. 
 
Your gift helps make photos like this a reality. Please make it a happier New Year for a lot of kids.
 
Click Here for a very special "Thank You" and have a rockin' holiday!

Links:

• Thank You!

Elementary school students are learning a new kind of writing -- songwriting.

Little Kids Rock stands alone among music education programs for placing songwriting at the center of the learning experience.  Playing music is an expressive outlet, but writing a song -- putting original thoughts into a recording -- calls kids to share their experiences and views in a way that builds confidence and character.

The songs that result can be cute, poignant, and even profound.

Take "Help the People of Haiti"  written by 10-year-old Jailine. It's her response to the earthquake in Haiti and a call to her classmates and everyone to help provide relief from the devastation and rebuild.  Here's a sample from the lyrics:

I see you standing there asking yourself, "Why.  Why me?"
I ask myself the same thing, and here's what I'm gonna do now.
Save our country, yeah.
I'm gonna blaze a trail of healing.
Believing we can do it all together.

Help the people of Haiti
My people, your people
Humankind, yeah
Come on and join!

Now watch the video here

Powerful stuff.  Catchy too.  See if you find yourself singing...Help the people of Haiti, my people, your people... later on today. 

We are so proud of Jailine and all of the Little Kids Rock students out there writing songs about their world.

By putting children in touch with their creative sides, music can motivate children to become the change for good in the world.  Little Kids Rock’s challenge is that millions of children are returning to silent classrooms this fall, because budget cuts eliminated music programs from public schools.

Like Jailine says, "Just because people don't talk about it doesn't mean it's over."  That's where you have an opportunity...

Please take a stand and send a message to kids like Jailine – let them know they have advocates who appreciate what they are learning and know that MUSIC MATTERS in a child’s education.  

Visit our project – Give 3,000 students access to music education (#1464) – and please give as generously as you can, so that more kids can receive the lifelong gift of music through LKR's free instruments and innovative lessons that focus on teaching kids to perform, improvise and compose the music they love.  

You have the power to help a child be positive, focused, and creative – attributes that will help them throughout their lives. 

Keep on Rockin'

Little Kids Rock

Links:

• Little Kids Rock Video -- Help the People of Haiti

Kids with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) are often required to forego music class in favor of additional time with academic subjects – or to have music programs that are courses in “guided listening” or “hand percussion activities”.  Not Jose.

Jose’s teachers decided to try "mainstreaming" him into a Little Kids Rock (LKR) class with other middle school students.  Jose felt intimidated and scared, because whenever he came into contact with other kids in art class and in phys. ed., he could see that looked at him differently and might even tease him.  He was really nervous, but he really wanted to play guitar.

When Jose entered his first Little Kids Rock class, the LKR teacher immediately put a guitar in his hands and showed him how to play a chord. Since it was a class ensemble and everyone played guitar together at the same time, he blended in!  That was all he needed to get started.  Over a period of about a month, Jose went from being shy and quiet to being one of the standout guitarists in the room.  When Jose played, he played to rock the house!

By the end of his second month with Little Kids Rock, Jose became known around school as "The Rocker."  Kids who had been unable to see past Jose’s challenges now were focused on his ability to play, and they wanted to be his friend.  For the first time in his life, Jose was esteemed among his peers.  Jose’s newfound confidence and the change in how he was perceived at school made his family become huge fans of Little Kids Rock.  

The amazing thing was…nobody did anything special for Jose.  The LKR teacher simply gave Jose the same tools and attention as he gave the other Little Kids Rock students – the opportunity to start something new together as equals.  

Little Kids Rock helps break down the barriers that isolate children by providing them with free instruments, free music lessons, and a support system of teachers and friends who can appreciate them for who they are.

Please visit us at http://littlekidsrock.com/pledge-a-donation.html and click “Donate Now” to donate securely with a credit card, or return your donation in the enclosed envelope. Thank you for helping build a better learning environment for our children.

Music can transform a child’s life and the ambiance of an entire school. Consider the impact you can make with a donation of $50, which puts an instrument into a child’s hands.

12-year-old Nailah found her confidence in a Jersey City Little Kids Rock classroom 5,600 miles away from her native Egypt. Her school principal observed her struggling to communicate and relying heavily on her translator.

Days later, he stopped into a Little Kids Rock teacher’s classroom and witnessed something that brought a tear to his eye. The teacher asked the group who would like to audition for a solo in Mariah Carey’s song, All I Want For Christmas Is You, and Nailah was the first person to stand up and sing the song to a group of 60 kids in the packed classroom.  Students passing by the room ducked in to see who was singing.

Music has the power to create an atmosphere of cooperation and support. 

“Students were captivated by her confidence and were non-judgmental of her pronunciation issues with the English text,” her teacher said.  The principal goes on to address bullying, a troubling issue in schools today.  “If we want to stop bullying, I think we should get Little Kids Rock into more schools,” the principal said.

So you see how your generous contribution helps break down the barriers that isolate children by providing them with free instruments, free music lessons, and a support system of teachers and peers who appreciate them for who they are.

Thank you for helping Little Kids Rock build a better environment for our children, and please give as generously as you can.

Links:

• Little Kids Rock Blog

Dear Rockin' Supporters

Little Kids Rock’s strength is in viewing music education in a new way -- LKR is engaging kids who are not motivated by traditional music programs, like 12-year-old Quentin Richardson, who, after three years in Little Kids Rock has remarkable skills  http://littlekidsrock.org/crazy_train.html  that won him a Jackson^® Randy Rhoads^TM guitar.  Thanks to your help, Little Kids Rock is now reaching nearly 63,000 children nationwide with music education that that uses the music kids know and love to give them a learning experience that resonates (pun intended!)

Music has the power to change children's lives – shy kids become bolder, angry and aggressive kids mellow out.  Playing music together helps children learn about teamwork and can motivate them to overcome the challenges in their lives.  Our challenge, as adults, is that more children than ever before have returned to silent classrooms this year, because budget cuts eliminated their school music programs. 

Please take advantage of the last few days of 2010 to send a message to kids like Quentin – let them know they have advocates who appreciate what they are learning and know that MUSIC MATTERS in a child’s education.  

Visit our project – Give 3,000 students access to music education (#1464) – and please give as generously as you can, so that more kids can receive the lifelong gift of music through LKR's free instruments and innovative lessons that focus on teaching kids to perform, improvise and compose the music they love.  

You have the power to help a child be positive, focused, and creative – attributes that will help them throughout their lives. 

Keep on Rockin'

Little Kids Rock

Dear Rockin' Supporters

Music has the power to change children's lives.  A young girl from Jersey City named Jade knows it.  She even wrote a song called "Change" -- a powerful testament to how music has changed her life: http://littlekidsrock.org/change.html

Jade has written several songs, and was chosen from among more than 400 students to be a grand prize winner in Little Kids Rock's 2010 songwriting contest.  Another thing about Jade that makes her new found talent so remarkable: she is partially deaf.  Before she was involved with Little Kids Rock, Jade rarely spoke up in class – now the entire school turns out to hear her sing and play.

By putting children in touch with their creative sides, music can motivate children to overcome the challenges in their lives.  Little Kids Rock’s challenge is that more children than ever before have returned to silent classrooms this year, because budget cuts eliminated music programs from public schools.

Starting on October 12, www.GlobalGiving.org is matching all donations – and as a special incentive for Little Kids Rock to invite all our friends to meet the challenge of restoring and revitalizing music education, GlobalGiving is offering a $1,000 bonus to the project that raises the most funds between Oct 12-21 ... AND another $1,000 bonus to the project that receives donations from the most individual donors. 

Please take advantage of this special opportunity to leverage your gift.  Visit our project between Oct 12^th and 21^st – Give 3,000 students access to music education (#1464) – and give as generously as you can, so that more kids can receive the lifelong gift of music through LKR's free instruments and innovative lessons that focus on teaching kids to perform, improvise and compose the music they love.

Like Jade says, “It's time to change, Be right and rearrange.”

Keep on Rockin'

Little Kids Rock

Links:

• Jade's video on www.littlekidsrock.org

This September, more kids than ever before will be returning to silent classrooms because school budget cuts eliminated their music programs. Little Kids Rock is reversing that trend by teaching kids to play contemporary music, how to improvise and how to compose their own music.

Here is a song written by one of our middle school students. Her song is called "Change." I think it illustrates quite powerfully how music has changed her life: www.littlekidsrock.org/change.html

Little Kids Rock will be going back to school with 54,000 low-income students rockin’ in 24 cities nationwide. You and all our friends at Global Giving can help us reach 75,000 kids by the end of 2010.

Also, two exciting new things will help us spread the word and build momentum –

MTV will feature Little Kids Rock on its show “Made” on August 19th at 5 pm (check your local listings). The Little Kids Rock segment will be in the first half hour :)

"Gene Simmons Family Jewels" on A&E. is featuring Gene’s visit to Little Kids Rock students in East LA. The episode, entitled "For The Love of Rock," premieres on August 24th at 9 pm (check your local listings).

Please tune in to see Little Kids Rock on television and help put music back where it belongs -- in our schools!

Thanks, and Keep on Rockin’,

Little Kids Rock

Links:

• Student song, "Change"

Dear Rockin’ Supporters,

http://littlekidsrock.org/therain.html

These are our kids at a school that had NO music program whatsoever. It's an original song by the kid who is rapping. He was a gang member and well on the road to dropping out of school to a life on the streets. NOW...he is at school every single day. Why?

Music – it has transformed his life.

Thanks to your help Little Kids Rock is now reaching over 54,000 underprivileged students nationwide with free musical instruments and lessons.

We love this work, and we are so grateful to you for helping to make it happen.

Our challenge is to raise $914,000 to reach 75,000 kids by year’s end – only $12.19 per student, so please support changing a kid’s life – or a group of kids.

Wednesday June 16th is a special day to ring out the school year and make your donation increase its impact. Global Giving is making a 50% match of any gift you give by visiting our link http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/music-education/

Please take advantage of this special opportunity to leverage your gift and help put music back where it belongs -- in our schools!

Keep on Rockin’,

Little Kids Rock

Links:

• Awesome original song by a LKR student!
• Your dollor will go 1.5 times further on June 16th

Dear Rockin’ Supporters,

Thanks to your help Little Kids Rock is now reaching over 50,000 underprivileged students nationwide with free musical instruments and lessons!

Sabian announced a donation of 100 cymbal sets to Little Kids Rock, complementing a recent donation of 100 drum kits by Musician’s Friend. Little Kids Rock also named drummer Chad Smith to its honorary board.

A group of our students in Nashville performed for Governor Bredesen at the holiday tree lighting in December, and recently performed for LKR sponsor Hot Topic. Check out the story by clicking the link below. http://www.fox17.com/newsroom/music_beat/videos/vid_216.shtml

We are also expanding our program into new cities, with chapter launches in Minneapolis and New Orleans scheduled for this fall.

Thank you for supporting Little Kids Rock, and keep an eye open for more news you can use.

Keep on Rockin’, Little Kids Rock

Links:

• LKR Kids in Nashville

Dear Rockin’ Supporters,

At the 2009 Right to Rock benefit on Thursday, Oct. 22, Little Kids Rock presented legendary E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons with the inaugural “Big Man of the Year Award.” Mr. Clemons found time between touring with Bruce Springsteen and promoting his new book to help Little Kids Rock raise over $160,000 to restore and revitalize music education in public schools nationwide.

Check out the story by clicking the link below.

We are also expanding our program into new cities, with chapter launches in Montclair, NJ and San Diego, CA underway.

Thank you for supporting Little Kids Rock, and keep an eye open for more news you can use.

Keep on Rockin’, Little Kids Rock

Clarence Clemons Jamming with Students

Links:

• Right to Rock Story

Hey Little Kids Rock™ fans!

Big Kenny, of Big & Rich fame, visited Mount View Elementary School on Tuesday as part of a Fender™ and Little Kids Rock™ initiative that brought 140 Guild® acoustic guitars to five schools in the Metropolitan Nashville Public School District.

The country music star fielded questions, jammed with the class, and became a Little Kids Rock™ Honorary Board Member.

Check out some of the news coverage: (copy and paste the link to your browser).

- WKRN - Nashville Channel 2, ABC:

http://www.wkrn.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=3752477&h1=Big%20Kenny%20jams%20with%20elementary%20kids&vt1=v&at1=Entertainment&d1=90300&LaunchPageAdTag=Search%20Results&activePane=info&rnd=65391896

- WSMV - Nashville Channel 4, NBC:

http://www.wsmv.com/video/19443367/index.html

Til Next time... KEEP ON ROCKIN'!

Sincerely,

Keith Hejna Little Kids Rock™ Public Relations Assistant T: 973.746.8248 F: 973.746.8240 www.littlekidsrock.org www.littlekidsrock.tv

Last month, Slash of Velvet Revolver and Guns 'N Roses fame visited Belvedere Middle School in East L.A.. He donated guitars, fielded questions, and led a jam session with the kids, who had been practicing several Slash songs in the weeks leading up to the event without the knowledge of the lead guitarist's impending visit.

Check out some of the media coverage we received:

- Rolling Stone Magazine - Pg. 30: - http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/27183553 /random_notes_the_dead_prince_sl/photo/5

- The Performing Songwriter: - http://www.performingsongwriter.com/pages/blogs/blog.cfm?BlogID=5&StartAt=11

- CNN: - http://www.littlekidsrock.org/SlashVisit.html

'Til next time, keep on rockin!

-- Little Kids Rock www.littlekidsrock.org www.littlekidsrock.tv

Slash

Hi Friends of Little Kids Rock,

As you know, Little Kids Rock transforms children's lives by restoring and revitalizing music education in our nation's public schools. We are happy to say that we just held our largest single teacher training ever in Dallas Texas last week. We trained a total of 58 teachers and equipped them with 900 brand new instruments and they are going to help us reach over 6,000 students in Dallas this year!

Check out what the Dallas Morning News had to say about us - http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-music_28met.ART.Central.Edition1.26e893a.html

Our goal this year is to purchase and place 8,000 brand new instruments into our schools around the country. We have already placed 6,500 so far. If we reach our goal of 8,000, we will have DOUBLED the number of instruments we gave away just last year.

Please help us to reach our goal of purchasing an additional 1,500 instruments this year. It's back to school time and our kids need your support more than ever!

Thanks for your interest in our kids and our work!

The Team at Little Kids Rock

What if we told you that by making an additional donation of just $10 or more you could help Little Kids Rock win an additional FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS to serve more kids? We are participating in a challenge grant that we think we can win. The Case Foundation is giving prizes of $50,000 to the four nonprofits who get the most unique donations through an online widget. Here is a link to our widget (also below): http://givingchallenge.globalgiving.com/dy/registry/ag.html?regid=671&cmd=prevfund

Please consider making another gift to help us win! Also, it would really help us if you would consider doing any of the following: 1. Email this link to your friends, family or social network 2. Get a widget for your blog profile or website 3. Share or save a link to this fundraiser on social networking sites.

You can get directions on how to do all of this by clicking on the link mentioned above.

Thank you for helping us put music back where it belongs…in our schools!

Links:

• Little Kids Rock
• LKR TV
• Little Kids Rock Widget

Hey Rockin’ Supporters!

This year was a spectacular success thanks to supporters like you. Thanks to the generous donations that you have made to Little Kids Rock through Global Giving we have been able to reach thousands of new students, by bringing free musical instruments and lessons to children in our public schools.

In 2007, Little Kids Rock opened new chapters in Atlanta, DC, Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey. Due to your generosity, thousands of students in these cities will have the gift of music in their lives, a gift that has the real potential to bring about lasting change.

This past year, Little Kids Rock students made appearances on Nickelodeon, MTV, HGTV and a host of other news outlets. They jammed with some of music’s biggest celebrities, opened up sporting events, and even played for city mayors!

If you would like to see video footage of some of the thousands of kids we are reaching across the country, visit www.littlekidsrock.tv. While you are there, explore some of the free video lessons that we post there for our students. Also, be sure to check out Little Kids Rock on iTunes U, Apple’s free educational component to its wildly popular iTunes platform, where Little Kids Rock became the #1 most popular educational program.

At Little Kids Rock, we still have plenty of work ahead of us. In 2008, we plan on bringing our program to many more deserving public school students. Your donations will help us launch new programs for five cities in 2008 (Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Jersey City and Tampa). We need your continued support to meet our ambitious goals of rocking the lives of 20,000 students in the coming year. We need to raise an additional $150,000 before the end of this calendar year to do so and we need your help to get there. A gift of any amount will make a difference!

Little Kids Rock newest group of teachers in Philly

Little Kids Rock Student performing live at The House of Blues i

Links:

• Little Kids Rock
• Little Kids Rock TV
• Little Kids Rock on iTunes

Little Kids Rock launched a new chapter in Philadelphia in April! Twenty public school teachers were trained to provide music instruction "the Little Kids Rock way" at a workshop held during the weekend of April 28th. These newly trained Music Mentors will provide music instruction for up to 600 students. What a great group of teachers! The energy remained high for the duration of the workshop. Our success was confirmed by the number of teachers who lingered at the conclusion of the workshop to continue discussions and practice concepts learned. One teacher left the classroom with this comment, "What an amazing program. The trainers made everyone feel so comfortable. It was a wonderful learning experience!"

Now, Philadelphia is awaiting its first set of Little Kids Rock classes. These teachers are enthusiastically preparing their class schedules and eagerly anticipating their instrument orders. 100 guitars have been secured for this project to date. Classes will commence in September.

We've recently posted two new videos about Little Kids Rock, including interviews with the students we're working with.

Links:

• A 3 minute LKR documentary
• A 30-second preview of LKR