What is the Blue Star Connection?
This is just one of the Grand County Blues Society program under the Blues in The School Umbrella.
Blues in the school here means "where children learn about music" Not all children get to be in the red brick school house. Sometimes school is a hospital room and all by yourself, or your bedroom at home in the middle of the night.
We are going to reach out to children all over the country who are dealing with cancer, life threatening disease .Basically any kid with a hard road to travel. We are going to reach out in two basics ways.
We are going to get instruments in thier hands if they are in need. Blue Stars can receive an electric guitar and amp. Blue Stars can have nice acoustic guitar . They do get a real kick out of the power and noise of the electric instruments. Keyboards have now gained a lot of popularity. We get almost as many requests for keyboards now as guitars. We also have found horns, flutes, and a violin can fill the bill as well as drums.
We are also going to reach out to music promoters and club owners, festival organizers to allow these kids and their guardians, parents etc... to come to events as our guests. They will get to meet the artists and enjoy live music as it was meant to be. Everyone knows that musicians are the most thoughtfull ambassadors on earth.
Our hope is that blues societies all over the country will take this program to heart and help us fund Blue Star Connection. Even individuals that find this mission worthy of thier efforts can raise funds for the program and have a say in where part of the proceeds can be spent.
Why the Name Blue Star Connection?
The kids in the beginning helped us name the program. Blue stands for our music Star, describes a bright light from a child . Connection, for connecting these kids with us and with music.
How Did Blue Star Connection Start?
On August 14th of 2005 Grand County Blues Society pioneered the Blue Star Connection to help kids with cancer and other life threatening diseases.
Blue Star Connection was magically created when we asked a 17-year-old with two inoperable brain tumors if he played music. He said he had a beat up acoustic he played on. Asked if he would play an electric guitar if he had one and he said, "Yeah." Then asked what color he would like and his Mom chimed in as she looked at his face, "It has to be blue like his baby blues eyes."
Two weeks later one of us was sitting in a Radio Shack when a local musician, came in with an electric guitar to donate to Blues In The Schools. He walks in with a baby blue Ibanez. It was destiny for Colin.
A few weeks later we got an email from Dr. Larry McCleary, he had seen an attitude adjustment that was notable. Perhaps the gift of a simple guitar made an unfair universe seem more a little more fair. Those were the words that inspired me. "When we all saw the effect this had on Colin, we decided that the best thing we could do was to get instruments for as many children as we could . Since then Colin found a lot of the Blue Stars thru chat lines on the internet. So needless to say finding him was like finding the pot of gold under the rainbow.
We now have provided guitars, basses, harmonicas, violins, keyboards ,flutes and drum kits .We have over 60 kids in the program and growing . We have kids in Colorado, Texas, California, Washington, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Florida, Illinois, South Dakota, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, India, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Nevada, Maryland and Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Oklahoma and once upon a time we had a beautiful girl named Sneha from New Delhi India.
We have lost five of our Blue Stars. Devon, Sneha and Brandon, Shakiri and Adam.They are always with us as Blue Stars and their loved ones cherish the instrument that brought some peace and music to their loved ones.
How are Children Finding Us ?
Children are finding us thru several avenues now. We have supplied therapy programs with instruments and the kids hear about us thru the therapist, they hear about us from each other and lately they are hearing about us from the newspapers stories and the TV coverage we are getting
How is the Program Funded?
All of our money comes from donations. We have received donations from the public, from some of our Blue Stars doing fundraisers, from surviviors of cancer and from friends of those who have passed . This program is always in need of money. To donate, fill in the amount below and click the PayPal donate button. All donations are tax deductible since we are a 501 C3 non-profit organization.
All funds raised by the GCBS for Blue Star are kept separate and only used for the Blue Star Connection program.