14 May, 2014

On April 3rd 2014 a Hohner-sponsored Harmonikids session at the Phoenix Children's Hospital's "Zone" facility brought healing joy to over a dozen child patients and members of their families. It was a fun and raucous session starting with a concert in which I played and the children sang along.

Afterwards all attendees were amazed at the speed and accuracy in which they learned to play four songs on their new Hohner-donated instruments. Although photography of all the kids smiling faces that day was not permitted in the facility for legal reasons, please see (attached) a happy “harmonica-heart” one child displayed at the end of the uplifting session… yep, that pretty much says it all! Program director Julie Schwarz wrote the following note of thanks detailing what was accomplished:

Hi Gary!

I wanted to thank you again for a great class today for our patients!! I received so much great feedback from all the patients, families, and staff involved. Some details…

We had 12 patients, 4 parents, and 4 staff members take part in the class today. I could not believe how attentive and interested all the patients were! We even had a few patients with some behavioral issues and it was great for them - they were engaged and overall very appropriate.

Many patients are not used to much structure during their hospital stay, so it really speaks volumes to your presentation that you kept their attention for over an hour!

I was so impressed with how quickly the patients were able to learn the songs - you were great interacting with them!! The parents and staff also had a great time. My favorite part was seeing how happy and proud of themselves the patients were after mastering a song on the harmonica. There were definitely A LOT of smiles in the Zone today!

Two of the patients stayed after and put on a little “concert” for us in the Zone… it was very cute. One in particular, whose mom was not there for the class, was so excited to demonstrate her new talent for her mom when she returned. It was a wonderful experience.

Thank you,

Julie Schwarz, MA, CCLS

Zone Program Coordinator

Phoenix Children's Hospital

For more information about Harmonikids and to donate, please visit Harmonikids.org.