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The excitement continues this fall! Our in-person classes are in full swing, with new students joining each day as the word spreads through schools and neighborhoods. Our students are growing in friendship with each other and making new friends wherever they go through the sharing of music and laughter. We are grateful for our friends near and far who have supported us through the years. Thank you for making this magic happen, and I hope this newsletter brings a smile to your heart!
Jee-Hoon Krska, Executive Director
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Last month, a festive brunch occurred at the New Providence United Methodist Church (NPUMC). Dozens of Keys 2 Success staff, partners, interns, students, and their families came together with church members to celebrate the successful outcome of our Summer S.T.E.A.M. camp. It was a unique gathering prompted by Sally Hoffman, a member of the NPUMC and one of the co-hosts of the Practice-A-Thon, which occurred this past Spring. We chose “Radical Kinship” as the name of the event to celebrate our unity as part of the human family.
Everyone brought something to share. We enjoyed warm empanadas, homemade quiche, fresh tomatoes from the Kinney Community Garden in Newark, and other delicious food and drinks. In addition, paintings by Keys 2 Success students hung around the room. Five-year-old LondonSkye and her brothers brought their art pieces up to 101-year-old Leonard, seated at one of the tables, to admire.
The highlight of the event was when we brought out the keyboards. Instead of having our children perform as they usually do, we turned the tables and asked all the adults to sit at the piano. Our children paired up with an adult and taught them how to play William Tell. There was a lot of laughter as our adult students took it all in good humor and tried their best to learn how to play the piece.
We all left with a warm glow in our hearts, looking forward to the next time we meet again. In the words of one of the high-school interns, Darasimi, “I absolutely had fun at the Radical Kinship Brunch. The food was really good. The people were welcoming and seeing all the piano kids teach the adults how to play William Tell was amazing. The brunch really took me back to all the summer performances. But it was different this time because this time, it wasn’t a performance to an audience. It was us sharing our summer experience and allowing the adults to get a peek at how the summer went. ”
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Bryce is 7 years old. He makes friends easily and lights up the room with his smile and grand personality. This summer he and his older twin siblings started taking piano lessons with Keys 2 Success in the Garden of Life. When asked what he thought of the piano lessons, he said, "I feel like I'm in the sky playing the piano, clouds around me, and I just feel like all my friends are behind me. They're here, and my cousins are beside me...and I'm just up in the sky above clouds."
His mom Andrea and her husband, Chuck, are always present in our programs. Whether it is chaperoning for performances or finding new spaces for Keys 2 Success to teach. They are all in!
“This is the first type of organized music training that [Bryce] has ever had. I see his progress already so I definitely want him to continue and perfect it. Whatever music avenue he wants to take is fine because I know that [Keys 2 Success] works on other areas as well. As long as he can do anything with music, it’s great for me, and he really loves the piano” - Andrea, Bryce's mom
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Host Steve Silverman turns the light on in the darkness and spreads the good. His podcast World Gone Good shares unique stories from incredible everyday people making the world a little bit better each and every day. This week, he shared his conversation with our executive director, Jee-Hoon Krska, about her childhood, what inspires her, and how her mother's drive for success is passed on to our children in Newark. Take a listen!
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After bringing in so many new students and increasing the number of our teaching sites, we are greatly in need of more keyboards. These keyboards are essential to our program, as we use them for in-person and at-home practice, as well as for performances.
If you have any digital keyboards that you would like to donate to our students, please contact us at (908) 883-0887.
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