January 2024 Newsletter

 

 

 

 

 

January 2025

The Tacy Foundation empowers children and teens to share hope and joy with hospital patients, military veterans, senior citizens, and disadvantaged youth through performances, music recording projects, and music mentoring programs.

Director’s Corner:


Happy New Year to Everyone!


As I write this message, assisted-living facilities and hospitals where we serve are receiving beautiful, heartfelt happy holidays cards from the Cards Team.


Every weekend five to ten live music events fill hospitals and senior assisted-living homes. We bring holiday songs and wishes from kids of all ages and all levels of musical ability. What a joy it is to see spirits lift as children/teens reach out with a warm musical hug to seniors and to hospital staff, patients, and visitors!


Holiday music is being recorded and sent to the Chief Intern for the video playlist to upload and deliver via emails and QR Code cards. Some will go inside the holiday cards for people in hospitals and hospice homes. Some will be given out during the holidays to our senior and hospital friends.


Piano and Guitar Pals children are learning how to read and play music, including holiday music, for a party the last week of December classes.

Chief Interns of Life Stories are drafting a manual with guidelines for interviewing seniors to discover their amazing life stories. Despite their many holiday activities, facility activity directors have expressed great interest and support for teens to interview their seniors. In particular, Brookdale Senior Living, Asbury Methodist Village, Sunrise Brighton Gardens, Sunrise Rockville, Brightview assisted living in Bethesda (three facilities), The Seneca, Sterling Care of Rockville and Shady Grove Rehabilitation.  In Virginia: Great Falls, Fair Oaks, Oakton, Waltonwood, Tall Oaks, Arleigh Burke, and Hunters Woods at Trail’s Edge. Alums are volunteering to help edit seniors’ life stories.



Thank you to all who are preparing to discover the genius and wisdom from those among us who have lived extraordinary lives and who are now quieted by the life changes of aging.


From all of us to all of you, Happy 2025!

Charlotte Holliday, Founder and Executive Director

My journey began all the way back in the 4th grade, when my curiosity about playing music grew. I loved listening to many instruments, but the piano was the one that spoke to me the most. When I heard my friend tell me that there was an afterschool program for piano lessons, I decided to try it out to see how it would go.


The mentors were so kind to me, and I remember all the good times I had while learning. I noticed that I was improving gradually, eventually learning how to play songs with notes in the treble and bass clefs. My main difficulty was learning the hand positions such as middle C, since the positions felt awkward. At the end of the program, I was able to play Old MacDonald for the winter concert. When I signed up for the program again in the 5th grade, things were going smoothly until schools were shut down due to COVID-19.

 

My interest in music slowly declined since middle schools did not offer piano classes. I decided to try different instruments such as the violin, but it just didn't feel the same, especially because the lessons were via online learning.


Although middle school just felt boring and difficult, once I started high school, I was shocked to learn that I could take piano as a class, and so my love for music skyrocketed like never before. The first few songs reminded me of what I did during Piano Pals, but with more advanced concepts such as playing right and left hands together. I learned so many great songs. At the end of the year, I even got to play at a concert, which to be honest, made me feel nervous as it was my first time on a big stage. I learned the song that I played from watching a video.


Now in my sophomore year, I have been delighted by the progression of my journey, feeling confident in the knowledge of the basics of piano such as the scales, reading sheet music, and chords. My brother in the 4th grade told me that he was going to sign up for Piano Pals. That rang a bell inside me: I got to thinking, "Hey, you took piano classes last year. Why not join Piano Pals as a mentor and see how it goes? It'll be a good way of paying it forward for all the help received during my time as a student."


After hearing that Piano Pals was still active, I decided to apply as a mentor, and I was accepted by our lovely founder, Mrs. Holliday, who taught me how mentoring works and what responsibilities it entailed. After being shown by fellow mentors how to get the pianos ready, I felt great and ready to mentor some students. Every time I mentor, I get the feeling of nostalgia as I realize it's been five or six years since I had the same experience as our current students. The songs I showed my students are very similar to the ones I've learned in my freshman year, so it was simple to explain to them how the song should be played. I taught them the finger positions so they wouldn’t get confused with the new concepts.


The mentorship experience has truly shaped my joy and passion, and I'm proud to be a part of the Tacy Foundation’s Piano Pals program. I hope to pass down my knowledge of piano to anyone interested so they can have a brighter future. Thank you!

On Christmas Eve, my family treated me to a special musical celebration at Blues Alley in Washington, DC.  Bryan Eng, jazz musician, young artist, composer, arranger, and actor, now thriving in NYC, came home to his famiy and friends to bring a jazz concert for his admirers in the nation’s capital.  Bryan and his jazz ensemble performed a Christmas Concert at Blues Alley.


Bryan is an alumnus of the Tacy Foundation teen volunteers.  He sang and played at hospitals, seniors facilities, military long-term care homes in Baltimore, and recorded for CDs to send to Fisher Houses.  After he graduated from high school and went to college at Northwestern, he contacted us during COVID to offer live music on Zoom for senior facilities back here in Maryland and Virginia.


Since moving from the Chicago area, where he entered the jazz and theater scene after college, Bryan has thrived in NYC as a jazz musician and Broadway actor.   He has kept in touch with us at the foundation and has brought music to Asbury and other facilities in his hometown Bethesda area whenever he could.


You may access his website for more information:  https://bryaneng.com


Many, many thanks to Bryan Eng and his jazz ensemble, Stephen Parisi and TJ Thompson, for a memorable Christmas Eve!


We thank him for his continued interest in offering contemporary music to inspire hope!

The Tacy Foundation

Educational Mission: Foster youth development through music, story and mentoring

 

Philanthropic Mission: Empower youth to discover and use their gifts in service to others

 

Social Mission: Build community partnerships and create intergenerational connections

 

Whom We Serve

Seniors

Children

Teens

Service members

Veterans

Injured/sick

Economically disadvantaged

Individuals who want to serve

 

How We Serve (Programs)

Live music concerts

Reading Express®

Piano Pals®

Guitar Pals®

Composers’ Circle

Music USBs

Musical equipment

COVID projects through video, email, cards, puzzles for outreach to the community

 

Charlotte Holliday, Founder and Executive Director

Matthew D. Scott and Michael Tacy, Graphic Editors

Michael Favin, Chief Editor

Zoe Bell, Teen Editor

Max Belyanstev, Teen Editor


Donations are appreciated.  All adult and teen staff are volunteers.  No salaries or benefits. Every dollar you donate goes to supplies for all projects offered to the community. 

 

Thank you!  

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