Grants are music to nonprofit’s ears
Five-year-old Kaiden Horton wrapped his small fingers tightly around the handbell’s handle so when he played his part in “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” it could be heard clearly.
Even after the song was over and his handbell had been put away, Kaiden kept the music going by singing a capella.
“I did it because I like it,” Kaiden said of his impromptu performance in his classroom at Operation Breakthrough.
The Kansas City child development center has been offering music therapy since July 2002 but got a big boost this year from the Kenneth L. and Eva S. Smith Foundation and the PNC Grow Up Great grant program.
That kind of help means music therapist Beth Merz now can see 17 children for individual therapy and spend time in 22 classrooms. And it means Kaiden can hold his own handbell, part of three new sets of handbells that Operation Breakthrough purchased with the additional money this year.
Musical improvisation in a therapy room is designed to help children with self-expression and self-control.
“It is a time for them to be themselves in a safe environment,” Merz said.
Operation Breakthrough co-founder Sister Berta Sailer loves to watch a DVD that shows how music transformed a 5-year-old boy. The video was taken years ago on the boy’s last day at Operation Breakthrough before going to elementary school. Within minutes, the boy goes from being angry about leaving to singing the words “this is my last day” to Merz’s keyboard playing.
“He talked himself into it,” Sister Berta Sailer said.The grant money also allows Merz to collaborate on music therapy services and projects with another therapist at Gordon Parks Elementary School, a school many children attend after Operation Breakthrough.
That kind of continuity is critical, Sister Sailer said
“Our kids have enough change in their lives,” she said.
Helping to develop the music room was great for the volunteers, said Steven Smith, president of Midland Loan Services, which is based in Overland Park and a part of the PNC Financial Services Group Inc. His company bought and installed cabinetry and bought musical instruments and equipment and music carts. One employee volunteered to paint a mural in the music therapy room.
Smith said his employees’ excitement for their volunteer work was evident from their faces at the room’s dedication.
“You could see what a kick they got out of it,” he said.
For Smith, the good deed gave him something else.
“The kids we are interviewing now ask us what we are doing in the community,” Smith said. “You need tangible things you can point to.”
Good for …
The more than 2,000 participants in the 20th annual Walk MS in 19 locations throughout eastern Kansas and western Missouri in April. They raised more than $275,000, which will fund national research into the cause of multiple sclerosis and a cure. It also will support the local programs that help the 25,000 eastern Kansas and western Missouri residents affected by multiple sclerosis very day.
Good Connections tells stories of people who are giving — and getting — help. If you have a story idea, call Debra Skodack at 816-234-4738 or send e-mail to dskodack@kcstar.com.
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