"In October, Our House began using the First Note curriculum.  The timing of our grant award from the Children's Music Foundation corresponded perfectly to our organization also being awarded a grant from AmeriCorps. Our House serves homeless and near-homeless children and their families.  In our child development center, AmeriCorps members serve alongside highly-trained staff teachers.  The purpose of AmeriCorps is to bring additional educational enrichment into the classroom.

Our AmeriCorps members are tasked with really enhancing the learning experience for our little ones - not just "watching kids."  To that end, we took the First Note program and put it into the hands of our AmeriCorps members.  They have taken the lead on rolling out this

incredible music program.  Our pre-schoolers are so engaged, and our AmeriCorps members are thrilled about having this fantastic tool to use in the classrooms. This is the perfect partnership between Our House, First Note and the Children's Music Foundation, and AmeriCorps.  Our deepest thanks to Rourke and the whole team at CMF for reaching out to us and putting this amazing resource into our service members' hands!"   Georgia Mjartan

Thank You Loeb Family! 

Thanks to another grant from The Loeb Family Charitable Foundation , the Children's Music Foundation is able to offer the First Note Music Program to several hundred more of our most under-served students. Thank you for your generous gifts!   

Children First is a private, charitable, non-profit organization that serves over 600 of Sarasota County, Florida's most vulnerable children, birth to five years of age, and their families. Services are provided at multiple locations throughout Sarasota County. 
   

"Kindergarten readiness is our ultimate goal. We offer an array of early childhood services through the Head Start and Early Head Start programs to accommodate the needs of every child and family. Each class has a low child to adult ratio. We provide all children with what they deserve-a safe place to learn, nutritious meals, and a nurturing environment."

CMF was proud to be a sponsor while attending the WSA Head Start & ECEAP Winter Directors Meeting earlier this month.  First Note Program Director Sinae Cheh (far left) and members of the Seattle Human Services Department are pictured above as presentations were made regarding the state of Head Start and other youth programs both locally and nationally. 

CMF Welcomes Our Newest Director!

John Uppendahl, Vice President of Communications for Parallels, has more than 25 years of professional experience in consumer, software, Internet, social media, entertainment, music and television businesses arenas. He has led successful global public relations and corporate communications campaigns for companies and clients including Starwave (ESPN.com), Motown Records, The GRAMMY Awards, Rivals.com, Humongous Entertainment, Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft Complete Baseball, Solters/Roskin/Friedman, Cavedog Entertainment, The YMCA, Siltanen & Partners, Boyz II Men, MusiCares, Johnny Gill, Billy Idol, Star Search, Stevie Wonder, Jay Leno, Media Mall Technologies (PlayOn), and Classmates.com.  

John earned his BA in Journalism from the University of Oregon. On a more personal note, John and his wife Alison have been married for 25 years and live in Bellevue. Their daughter Katie is a senior at Gonzaga University, is majoring in Biology and Education, and wants to be a K-12 teacher. Their son Adam is a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, majoring in Neuroscience.