13 January, 2022

On January 13, 2022 I provided a Harmonikids session to 58 fifth grade students at North Star Elementary, a Title 1 school near Denver Colorado. The session was sponsored by Hohner and the Colorado Blues Society (CBS). Gary Guesnier from CBS helped to schedule and coordinate with myself and North Star teacher and Social Emotional Learning Specialist Mike Cammilleri. The success of the session and and positive impact it had on the students is best described by Mike Cammileri’s note of thanks below.

~ Gary Allegretto, Founding Director of Harmonikids, www.harmonikids.org

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Dear Mr. Gary Allegretto, I simply can not express how grateful we are for the time that you spent in our community yesterday. There is nothing like the experience of live music to inspire artistic energies in a child, and the 5th graders at North Star left your assembly yesterday quite literally bubbling over with it! The way that you interacted with our students was wonderful and your ability to make your instrument and art so tangible for them had them all feeling like they too could play the harmonica. You should have seen how many of them were playing harmonica on the playground after school for their parents and families! It isn’t surprising to meet an nationally renowned musician with the level of talent that you have. What is uncommon is the amount of excitement, energy, and generosity that you brought to our kids and our community for the time that you were with us. Taking the time to do more than just put on a show, but to actually teach our students how to play harmonica and send them home with an instrument that they can practice and play with showed a tremendous generosity of not just talent, but time and resources as well. So THANK YOU!!! You’ve made more than a few fans in our community, and you never know... it is experiences like this that have the potential to have life changing effects. The world’s next greatest harmonica player may just have gotten their start in our elementary school gymnasium yesterday afternoon. You’re an inspiration!

~ Mike Cammilleri, Social Emotional Learning Specialist, North Star Elementary School