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CBC NEWSLETTER - DECEMBER, 2011
Greetings!

 As the year of 2011 winds down and the joy of the holidays is upon us, we at CBC would like to update you on the exciting strides we've made these past months in our efforts to help music find children.

 

 CHANGES FROM WITHIN

 

We are pleased to announce that Georgia Backus and Colleen O'Connell will be joining our Advisory Board for 2012-2013 . Georgia is Executive Director of The Rich Center for Autism at Youngstown State University and a long-time friend of CBC. Colleen is a former educator with music, business, and non-profit-related work experiences. We're very excited to have Georgia and Colleen working with us in the coming years.

 

Rotating off our board will be Eunsook Hyun of the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and Becky Keck of Youngstown State University's SMARTS program. We are extremely grateful for their service and support during their time on our board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROJECTS ON THE GROUND

 

Those of you who visit our Facebook page know that we have two incredible projects underway this year. The first is located at Lanterman High School in Los Angeles. Count Me In, Lanterman brings The Rhythmic Arts Program (TRAP) to 30 students through the strong work of Stephen Flinn, our TRAP facilitator in Los Angeles. An unexpected pleasure of this project has been meeting and working with the school's principal, Christina Cisneros.

 

SMARTS Trap is our second project, this one located in the greater Youngstown, OH area. There, we partner with the Students Motivated by the Arts (SMARTS) program (a part of Youngstown State University) directed by CBC Advisory Board alumnus, Becky Keck. Leslie Cusano coordinates our SMARTS Trap partnership, overseeing 60 special needs students at five different locations in the area. Like their peers in Los Angeles, these Ohio students are experiencing the TRAP curriculum. The SMARTS Trap facilitators - all Youngstown State University students - are: Ed Davis, Chris Leterra, Katie O'Neill, Justin Robich, and Allison Zimmerman.

 

 

Our kick-off of the SMARTS Trap program was quite an event. TRAP founder and noted professional drummer, Eddie Tuduri, visited Youngstown in late September to train the five new facilitators over three days. Eddie's training sessions coincided with a public relations session for local media that included visits by Bill Bodine of CBC, Ray Mancini (World Boxing Association champion), and singer/songwriter Sarah Turner, all Youngstown natives.

 

Late in October, Bill Bodine visited the Lanterman site to collect photo and video data for our research efforts while Dan Marshall visited the various Youngstown sites to collect the same visual data. We will use these data in our ongoing research efforts designed to assess the efficacy of these efforts. At the same time, we will share some of our visual data with you (as we did in an email last month) and with a broader audience via our Facebook page. We hope to continue sharing these photos and videos throughout the coming year.

 

 

 

Lanterman 1 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PROJECTS IN THE WORKS

 

CBC's friend, Sarah Turner, recently presented a showcase concert in Nashville, and we were there to support her! CBC co-founder, Bill Bodine, and Advisory Board member, Ray Mancini, joined other Youngstown supporters at Sarah's concert, including Nashville star songwriter Bob DiPiero and CBC's newest friend Rick Blase, owner of the Rick's Ranchwear stores. Sarah rocked it pretty hard and Nashville welcomed this new talent to their fold.

 

While in Nashville, discussions began that will hopefully bring a CBC program to the kids there. We have many enthusiastic and supportive friends (including a new Advisory Board member) in Nashville and feel optimistic that we can assemble a team to bring a music-based program to that wonderful city. At the same time, CBC is also in preliminary discussions to bring hope and music to several other locations within and beyond the U.S. It's too early to say much about these possibilities, but we will keep you posted on our website as things develop.

 

 

OUR SINCERE THANKS

 

In addition to the recent generosity of Rick Blase and his Rick's Ranchwear stores, CBC would like to introduce and thank our accounting and bookkeeping teams that are making sure all is well with the CBC books.

 

Kathleen Kushner at Creative Business Management (CBM) in Los Angeles handles our day-to-day accounting. CBM then ships these data to James Gerlach at Annis, Gerlach and Williams in Youngstown, Ohio, where our official financial records live. James Gerlach happens to also be one of the best keyboard players in the free world, and a long-time friend of ours. Not only do these accounting firms do great work, they are also donating their talents to the CBC mission. This is a HUGE gift for which CBC is extremely grateful.

 

While shopping for the holidays, please remember our good friends at Rick's Ranchwear and consider supporting them by purchasing the great products they offer. And should you find yourself in need of professional services next year in either the Los Angeles or Youngstown areas, we will happily put you in touch with CBM and Annis, Gerlach and Williams.

 

 

FUNDRAISING

 

Friends, it's that time of the year where we reach out to you and ask that you consider helping CBC continue its mission to bring music to young kids and those with special needs. This year, our programs are changing the lives of nearly 100 children, and we'd love to bring music programs to more young people living in cities near you. To do that, we need help to keep the lights on and that's where you come into play. Any amount that you can donate will help move us closer to initiating our next project and sustaining the ones already in place.

 

Making a monetary donation is easy: simply go to our website (www.cbridgec.org) and click on DONATE. Or, you can send your check payable to CreativeBridge Coalition to either Bill or Dan and they'll see that it finds its way to our general funds. All monetary donations are tax deductible. Of course, if you can only afford to send us your blessings, please do so. Those are very valuable, too, and we are grateful for your continued support in any form!

 

 

In closing, we want to thank you all and wish you and your families the merriest of holidays and a bountiful new year.

                                                                        

Sincerely,         

 

 

 

Bill Bodine

Dan Marshall

CreativeBridge Coalition