 |
From Our Founder:
January 2009
Happy New Year! Rock Against Cancer would like to welcome our friends and family to our new website. Please look around the site for interesting new information on School of Rock programs, benefit concerts, Gifts from the Heart and Stars Night Out programs planned for 2009.
Don’t miss the book of past events! Pictures and information on events from the past nine years are expertly presented in a fun new flash book.
2008 was another busy year for Rock Against Cancer! Our friends at Hot Topic Foundation provided $175,000 grant to continue our School of Rock Music Therapy (SOR) programs around the country. RAC provided continuation funding to existing centers and opened three new School of Rock centers:
- National Children’s Medical Center, Washington, D.C.
- Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital, Atlanta, GA
- Egelston Children’s Hospital, Atlanta, GA
RAC teamed up with the SOR program at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City helped RAC create a mobile digital recording studio. This allows the Music Therapist to offer song writing and recording in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and other areas of the hospital where children fighting cancer are isolated.
Our friends from STS9 (www.sts9.com) held their annual fundraising event at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. RAC is very excited to report that at $1/ticket STS9 raised $17,027 for the Atlanta Music Therapy programs! Thanks to Jean Murphy, April, David, Eric and all the STS9 band members and fans, YOU ROCK!
One of the highlights of the year was presenting a panel discussion at the American Music Therapy Annual Conference with seven of the School of Rock Music Therapists from around the country. I was humbled to hear the stories of their daily work with children and teens fighting cancer and the positive impact music, songwriting and recording have on their daily lives. Don’t miss 9 year old Eleanor’s lyrics on the Program page and check back for TV pieces featuring our Music Therapists at work.
2009 is shaping up to be a very busy year! RAC will host a childhood cancer awareness night with the Durham Bulls August 8th. Plans are being made for Stars Night Out shows and new School of Rock programs. A round of Gifts from the Heart bags will find their way to kids fighting cancer in time for Valentine’s Day, filled with treatment journals, scrapbooks, T-shirts and of course music!
Thank you as always for your support of the youngest cancer survivors! See you on the road in 2009!
Cheers,
Lisa
Lisa White, Ph.D.
Founder, Rock Against Cancer
lisa@rockagainstcancer.org
Click here for archived Letters from Our Founder.