A Note From the President
I hope that you and yours are doing well! As always, I am so grateful for your compassionate heart towards the abused orphans right here in our own backyards. Please know that your support is genuinely changing their lives – providing healing from horrific wounds and progress towards a brighter future!
And, wow! May has been a busy month! As other children in the orphanages and group homes see our students taking lessons with musical instruments of their own, and they the positive change taking place, other orphans want the same opportunity!
In Arizona, we are now partnering with the Children First Leadership Academy (formerly Thomas J. Pappas School for the Homeless). Together, we will provide a three week summer camp for homeless, at risk, and orphaned children that includes both academics and musical instruction. What a wonderful opportunity to help these precious children!
And, as I mentioned last month, All Kids Need Music was recently featured on television. I was able to
demonstrate how we teach and encourage our students (we can’t show the student per state care guidelines), one of our trauma certified teachers described how the program provides healing, and a board member shared specifics about the lives of orphans in the foster care system. She outlined why the need is so great for emotional healing through a trauma informed music therapy program. If you were unable to watch the interview, you can view it here.
As the number of students grow and feedback from our instructors comes back to us, we are realizing more acutely how deeply wounded these precious children are, and just how vast the numbers of children in foster care systems around our country is. The latest figures show almost half a million children around the nation. At any given time, over 20,000 whose parental rights have been severed, making them truly U.S. orphans. That is 20,000 children who have no family and need healing from the horrific abuse they have endured. They need to know they are cared about enough to give them the tools they need to heal and succeed. Our music therapy program for orphaned children is truly only hampered by funding. We are certainly doing our due diligence in applying for grants, but there is tremendous competition and the grant funding process is slow.
We have to help as many abused, orphaned children as possible. Will you be an advocate for these vulnerable children who have already suffered so much? We need your help to educate people about the orphans in our midst, and ways we can all be a part of giving them a future and a hope. Specifically, will you forward our newsletter to at least five friends? And, please post the link to it on your social media accounts. Join us on our social media sites and share our posts (sites linked at the bottom of the newsletter). We really need people to be champions for these children. What has happened to them is not their fault, and we can’t stand by and watch their lives be ruined by the terrible choices made to abuse them. We need business sponsors – it can be any size business, and we will make sure they get great exposure for their generosity. We need churches, schools, and individual sponsors to join us in their healing. AND, no gift is too small. We need to buy musical instruments, pay instructors, even pay for things like our Zoom subscription so we can teach online. It all adds up – please help where you can. All Kids Need Music is a registered 501(c)(3) charitable organization, so your gifts are tax deductible. Thank you again for your compassion to and care for these terribly wounded orphans.
For the Children,
Ed Kelly
President/CEO
All Kids Need Music
Yes! I Can Help Sponsor Waiting Orphans
Changed Children
Meet Shawn! He is 15, and lives in an orphanage in Ohio. He came to All Kids Need Music because two other children at the orphanage he lives at have started their therapeutic music lessons with us. Unfortunately, we do not have a sponsor for Shawn yet, and need your generous help. We did not want to keep Shawn waiting as he needs this music therapy urgently, so he has started the program and we are trusting that a sponsor will step up to be his Music Champion. Kyle, Shawn’s teacher, told us that Shawn has a strong passion for music and loves the piano.
In his first lesson Shawn shared that it is his dream to be a famous musician someday. Kyle was thrilled to hear that and told him he was eager to give him the necessary skills to achieve his goal. And believe it or not, sometimes it is just the little things that make such a big difference. Shawn requested a cable so he can plug his keyboard into his computer and record his own music, which he is now doing! Shawn is now channeling his love of music into positive creativity, giving him hope, a healthy emotional outlet, and the pure joy of playing the piano that changes his emotional outlook.
Would you like more information about adopting foster children? Building Arizona Families, one of our corporate sponsors, can help. They offer virtual seminars on adoption for foster children, infants, and Haitian children. You can find out more about adoption by visiting their website HERE. And, you can view children whose parental rights have been severed and who are hoping and praying for forever families HERE. Please forward the information about adoption to friends and family!
Yes! I Want Adoption Information!
Meet JLC Roofing, one of Arizona’s leading roofing companies. Not only are they a leading roofing company, but they lead by giving back to Arizona’s children in ways that will change their futures forever. Through their sponsorship, two Arizona orphans are receiving the healing gift of therapeutic music lessons. Progress for their students has been just wonderful since they began their sponsorships back in December. JLC Roofing offers commercial and residential roofing in Arizona. Find out more about JLC Roofing, a family owned business that has been serving Arizona for 25 years, and is now serving Arizona orphans at www.jlcroofingaz.com
Champions for Children
Meet Tamara Becker, M.Ed, President and CEO of Adamo Education. Tamara is truly a champion for children, and has spent her adult life empowering them through education. She has over 25 years of education experience, from elementary school teacher to Director of Special Education, assistant superintendent, and most recently Vice President of a large national education organization. She is now launching Adamo Education micro schools to build places where kids love learning. Even in the midst of transition, Tamara has not forgotten the least of these – abused orphans. Her generosity is providing weekly music lessons for a student in an orphanage who tells us that it helps him be able to manage his emotions and gives him a safe place to express them. Thank you, Tamara, for being a champion for children!
Yes! I can sponsor an orphan!
Champion These Children
Shawn is waiting for a sponsor at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Ohio. We have three orphans in Arizona waiting for sponsors. We also need funding for the summer camp so that we can include more orphans. Can you help?
No gift is too small!
Individual Champions
There are so many ways for individuals to help change the lives of foster children.
Choose a child or children to sponsor for a year. You can choose to cover the costs of the child’s instrument and lessons, just the lessons, or just the instrument with our music charity. You can also choose to give to the area of greatest need when helping kids with All Kids Need Music. You can make a single gift or a monthly recurring gift. And remember, it changes childrens’ lives and is tax deductible as an additional benefit to you. Please visit us HERE to learn more!
Business Champions
Businesses that sponsor music lessons and instrument rental for at risk youth are first and foremost changing the lives of the most vulnerable children in the U.S. As a thank you for the generosity of our business partners, our music charity All Kids Need Music provides an effective platform for businesses to build their brand around their corporate generosity.
Research proves that corporations that give back have a significantly higher brand appeal and loyalty rate. Corporations engaged in social good also positively impact their own employees at work satisfaction and company loyalty. Being a champion for at-risk youth provides the opportunity for employees to stay in touch with their sponsored child, providing a source of joy and sense of being cared about for children who in many instances have been terribly abused and discarded. Please visit us HERE to learn more!
Every Dollar Helps – Please Give What You Can
All Kids Need Music Needs Sponsors to Help
We urgently need your help for thousands of U.S. orphans living in group homes and shelters around our country. These orphaned children are at risk youth that have already experienced so much pain and loss from unimaginable child abuse and neglect. They need the opportunity to heal through the therapy of playing a musical instrument. Music charity for children can provide that service. We are an IRS registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your generous gift is tax deductible. Please do what you can to help these children!
