[Harp-L] Gary Allegretto & Harmonikids

[BassHarp <bassharp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary just sent the following to me, and I feel it necessary to share 
with everyone on Harp-L. Gary is a friend, and a great harmonica 
bluesman and vocalist (with Gary Allegretto & The Sugar Daddies), but 
his burning desire is to do whatever he can for kids, especially the 
underprivileged. He is also a former fire-fighter with the Los Angeles 
Fire Department and has a sincere care about people. Check his website 
at: http://www.harmonikids.com/

For information, contact:
Gary Allegretto
(323) 650-2826
garyallegretto@xxxxxxxxxxx

P R E S S   R E L E A S E

HARMONIKIDS' MUSIC THERAPY HELPS REBUILD SPIRITS OF TSUNAMI-SURVIVING 
CHILDREN

June 3, 2005 Los Angeles, CA. -- Musician Gary Allegretto has just 
returned from North Sumatra, where he spent a month using music therapy 
to teach valuable coping skills to child victims of the tsunami.  "I was 
compelled by the traumatic stress and emotional pain the children felt 
after having their entire world swept away," said Allegretto.  "In going 
to North Sumatra, the primary mission was to help replenish through the 
healing power of music some things that had been cruelly taken away from 
these children: their ability to laugh, play and express themselves."

World-recognized as a powerful way to help people express their 
feelings, music therapy is an established healthcare profession that 
uses music to address the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social 
needs of individuals.  Allegretto, as Executive Director of non-profit 
organization Harmonikids, extends music therapy to children using 
harmonicas.  Harmonikids coordinated the involvement of a variety of 
partners for the project including: Manly Chamber of Commerce, Medan 
Chamber of Commerce, non-profit organizations Mercy Indonesia and Warm 
Blankets and Hohner Inc., 
which donated a third of the harmonicas for the project.

1000 harmonicas were distributed in multiple music therapy sessions led 
by Allegretto, held in orphanages and refugee camps in the region of 
North Sumatra. Allegretto taught the children to play positive, fun and 
simple songs on harmonicas that they were able to keep after the 
sessions.  By the end of the sessions, the children were entertained by 
American Blues songs and had learned to play Indonesian nursery songs 
and the ever-popular Happy Birthday song on their harmonicas.  More 
importantly, the sessions enabled  children to reconnect with joyous 
emotion that they had not felt since before the tsunami disaster.  
According to one of the principals of a school in Medan, "Allegretto's 
accessibility and commitment brought the kids joyfully together in 
song."  Additionally, although Harmonikids has no religious 
affiliations, it brought together through the power of music, children 
from Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Islamic Fundamentalist religions.

"The children were empowered with a visible sense of self-worth and 
satisfaction upon receipt of the harmonicas," said Project Coordinator 
Natasha Phillips. "They were important enough for this American 
[Allegretto] to come all the way over to give them a harmonica and teach 
them how to play it.  This proved as important as any other aid that 
would keep them alive."

At the end of the project, Allegretto was honored for his efforts with a 
ceremony involving the city's most prominent officials and audience of 
2,000 people, wherein Allegretto and Phillips were presented with woven 
sashes and plaques of appreciation from the city.

--
BassHarp
PO Box 5061
Hudson, FL 34674-5061
http://www.bassharp.com/ace.htm
http://www.bassharp.com/bh_itin.htm