Nonprofit Performance 360 Magazine Vol 4 No 4

JIM NEWTON

Healing Through Music

A fter seminary, I was a folk singer and traveled around the country singing for youth groups and campus ministries. I had established the nonprofit Celebration Shop to oversee my ministry. Two years later, during a weekend gig, my hosts requested that I visit the children’s floor in a nearby hospital. Tired from a long tour and unprepared to sing children’s songs, I reluctantly went to the hospital. After I did a concert for a group of children, a nurse asked me to sing for a little boy who was too sick to come out of his room. I sang a few songs and, as the boy’s mom walked me into the hall, she told me how much she appreciated my doing this because she didn’t think they were going to be able to take him home this time. She thought they were going to lose him. He hadn’t smiled like that in weeks, and she’d never seen him clap his hands to music before. She said I’d given them a priceless gift. The need was great and the music made a difference. A lightbulb went off in my head as I left. I went home and told the Celebration Shop board that we should go in a new direction. I started volunteering in hospitals and consulting with Child Life Specialists and medical staff about the special needs of hospitalized children. With some talented friends, I wrote and collected children’s songs that helped meet those needs. Within several years, most of my work was in children’s hospitals. Therapeutic Music Entertainment Our music is not Music Therapy, but Therapeutic Music Entertainment (TME), which is a musical performance or activity which, by virtue of its diversion, amusement and/or engaging qualities, promotes healing. Whether a child’s challenge is medical or emotional-psychological, TME can help children express feelings in healthy ways,

build self-esteem, accept their own and others’ differences, relax, be silly, have fun, and heal. Paul G. Hill, another SMU grad with a degree in music theory and composition,became my partner in composition and arrangement. When we were writing new songs for our first kids’ album, I invited Noel Paul Stookey, the Paul of Peter, Paul and Mary, to help us produce this special new resource.Noel accepted and joined us as a singer,songwriter, and producer. The album (originally called Friends of the Family and now Best I Can Be) needed funding. That’s when J.W. and Ann Brown became interested in our mission. J.W., then President of Dallas Energy Finance Discussion Group, funded the second album, We Can Do, through personal and group donations. From Celebration Shop to Hugworks to KidLinks By the mid-1990s, Celebration Shop had become Hugworks with a mission to provide healing experiences for the special needs of children through performing arts, music, and media. In 2001, J.W. was instrumental in bringing together people associated with the Texas energy industry to form the KidLinks Foundation. The foundation’s main fundraising effort is the KidLinks Energy Golf Classic, now in its seventeenth year. It grosses around a half-million dollars annually to support direct services offered for children and families in children’s hospitals and special care centers across the country. Several years ago, KidLinks started the Symphony of Chefs event, in which chefs from restaurants in the Dallas area cook at individual tables; this event generally raises about $200,000. These two events fund over half of our work each year, and J.W. Brown is now chair of the board.

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