BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. — A Buffalo Grove choir has found a special way to share the healing power of music with kids at local hospitals.
For two years, the BG Singers have been rehearsing for a special concert. For them, it’s not just about hitting the right notes in practice but making sure their voices carry and impact those far beyond the concert hall.
When the group heard about a charity looking to get ukuleles in the hands of hospitalized kids, it changed their tune. They began to search for artists to paint ukuleles that could be auctioned off.
“For every ukulele they buy, two will be given to the hospitals,” Kathy Novak said. “So it’s been a great effort.”
Today those bright colorful ukuleles cover the walls of the Buffalo Grove Park District’s community center, area restaurants, businesses and entryways. It has added up to lots of dough.
“Our ukuleles are going to go to some of the children’s hospitals in Chicago like Lurie, Advocate, Comers, Shriners’,” Novak said.
Through music therapists, the young patients are taught to play the instruments gifted to them by the Ukulele Kids Club.
“I saw that kids transform when they get a ukulele and or a guitar in their hands,” Linda Rosen, Director of the BG Singers, said. “It’s something that’s fairly easy to do and takes them to a different place.”
More information at
theukc.org
bgsingers.org
Drowning out some of the stress, anxiety and fear that goes with being stuck in a hospital bed.
Through UKA, more than 2,000 kids got their own ukulele this year, a number that will continue to crescendo because of the BG Singers.
The BG Singers have their annual concert coming up at the end of the month. The founder of the Ukulele Kids Club will be there to receive all the money they raised that will put hundreds of ukuleles in the hands of local pediatric patients. There are still ukuleles up for auction.
