Music Celebration event also offers children a chance to try various instruments, a music-related book giveaway and even more free books for all ages.

PITTSBURGH, PA, UNITED STATES, October 13, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Hungry for Music, a nonprofit that collects and donates musical instruments to children, and the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, are presenting a Music Education Celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 22, featuring performances from Pittsburgh public school students and teachers, area musicians and PFT artists. The event also offers interested children a chance to try various instruments, a music-related book giveaway, food trucks, even more free books for all ages, and more.

The celebration will take place at the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers building, 10 S. 19th St. in Pittsburgh.

The Music Education Celebration will also include an Instrument Amnesty Day in which public school students are invited to turn in a school instrument that had been borrowed but perhaps forgotten, no questions asked.

The Kappa Kappa Psi fraternity for University of Pittsburgh band members is holding an instrument drive through Oct. 29, and students from Duquesne and Carnegie Mellon universities will volunteer at the Celebration event. Hungry for Music founder and director Jeff Campbell will be networking that week with other local music program leaders to maximize each organization’s outreach.

The event also marks a new partnership between Hungry for Music, which is on a national tour to establish chapters in several U.S. cities, and the American Federation of Teachers. The book giveaway is part of the AFT’s Reading Opens the World campaign. Just as Hungry for Music spreads the joy of music throughout the world, Reading Opens the World strives to spread the joy of reading by providing 1 million books for families, classrooms and educators.

To kick off the new partnership, the Cleveland Teachers Union joined Hungry for Music in a Reading Opens the World event at the Rock & Rock Hall of Fame in June. The AFT, in collaboration with longtime partner First Book, provided hundreds of free children’s books on musical topics like the biographies of Duke Ellington, Elvis Presley and Mahalia Jackson, books on Native American music and Spanish-language editions.

Since becoming a nonprofit in 1994, Hungry for Music has brought the healing quality of music to more than 17,000 children in 50 states and 32 countries, mostly through school and community youth programs but also by supporting social workers via music therapy.

“We want to increase our outreach of supporting students in school and after-school programs with musical instruments, giving them an opportunity that they would not otherwise have,” Campbell said. “Chapters are the next logical step in our outreach. Our three-year plan is to set up 60 chapters, starting with the many cities where we already have a good presence.”

Chapters will help HFM reach more children while keeping musical instruments in the area where they were donated, Campbell added. A chapter would replicate the team that HFM has built from its home base of Washington, D.C., and Shenandoah Valley, Va.

In early 2023, Hungry for Music’s chapter set-up tour heads to Miami-Dade, in collaboration with the United Teachers of Dade, the largest teachers union in the southeastern United States, followed by travels around Florida and visits in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi. Updates and other details will be posted on the HFM website, www.HungryforMusic.org, and social media pages, including Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/HungryForMusic ).

In addition to the AFT, sponsors of the chapter set-up tour include National Association of Professional Band Instrument Repair Technicians (NAPBIRT), whose members have assisted HFM in refurbishing donated instruments; D’Addario Foundation, the charity arm of the nation’s leading strings and accessories manufacturer; and JAMBARs, an organic energy bar maker that supports music education.

For more information, and details on how to donate, visit HungryforMusic.org. Inquiries can be emailed to contact@hungryformusic.org or through the website.

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Please let Kay Coyte know if you’d like to contact Jeff Campbell for a comment or interview. He often is on the road, but we can help facilitate getting in touch with him.

Kay Coyte
Hungry for Music
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