Erin from Clarkston – 2009 SLYC Member

Hi, my name is Erin and I am a student at Clarkston High School. I am engaged in service in a variety of ways.

Every year my family helps with a guitar give-away at the annual Noreaste’r Music and Art Festival in Mio, Michigan. Each year we buy up to 12 guitars to give to youth who would like to learn how to play music. All a kid has to do to be eligible for the guitar give-away is write an essay on why they want to learn how to play. The top 12 essays are then picked to receive a free guitar.

In order for my family to receive the guitars, we must fundraise to purchase them. On Sunday, March 15th, we held a fundraiser to do just that. We got a Michigan-based music artist to play a live show and requested $10 donations from concert attendees at the door. At the end of the day we raised over $1,300!

I think what my family does, through the guitar give-away, is important because it educates people about music. The Noreaste’r Music and Art Festival features folk music – not a genre many people listen to. We book folk bands for the Festival so people can learn to recognize this music. And, we get guitars for kids so they can see that music artists can be role models.