| Name of Non-Profit Organization * | Melody Makers Music – Cincinnati Children’s Hospital |
| Today’s Date: * | Monday, August 30, 2021 |
| Organization’s website | http://www.melodymakersmusic.org |
| EIN / 501(C)(3)Number * | 31-0833936 |
| What year did your organization receive it’s non-profit status? * | 1973 |
| Address * | Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center P.O Box 5202 Cincinnati, OH 45201-5202 United States |
| County * | Hamilton |
| Your Name * | Hannah Gerth |
| Your Title * | Donor Relations |
| Your email address * | hannah.gerth@cchmc.org |
| Your Phone Number | (513) 803-6597 |
| Executive Director’s Name * | Julie Spendel |
| Executive Director’s email address * | Julie.Spendal@cchmc.org |
| What is the mission of your organization? | |
| The mission of Melody Makers Music Fund is to raise money for the music therapy program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for both in-patient and home based hospice and palliative care families. The music therapy they provide touches the lives of patients and their families so emotional healing can take place for everyone touched by the patient’s medical diagnosis. Music interventions may include techniques such as singing, playing instruments, dancing, song writing, using adaptive musical technology to help children with physical needs, etc. The therapy can also include beautiful memory making and remembrance activities for children and families who have lost a child. | |
| Which social causes (up to 3 choices) does your agency address through its programming? * |
|
| Any comments about your selections you would like to share with the student philanthropists? | |
| In September 2019, our family was blessed with a baby girl. As we wondered what to name her, the name Melody came to our hearts and we instantly knew it was meant to be her name. Little did we know, her name would foreshadow her love of music and what an important part of our family’s lives it would become.
When Melody was born, we knew we would not have as much time with her as we had hoped so we became part of the Starshine Hospice program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. During the time that Melody was with us, seven and a half months, many therapists from Cincinnati Children’s came to our house. We learned that the Music Therapy Program works with families of children both in the hospital and families who are at home receiving end of life care so we were excited to start working with them. Melody quickly showed us that, true to her name, she loved music and was so calm and peaceful during music therapy. With our music therapist we sang, listened to music, and made musical memories with Melody. Our music therapist had the foresight to start memory making before Melody passed away. She used very special technology to record Melody’s heartbeat and after Melody passed away, she helped us write song lyrics about Melody. In following sessions, she brought her recording studio equipment to our house and we each got to record our voices singing our songs with Melody’s heartbeat as the backbeat. This is such an incredible gift we will always treasure! Our family still continues to receive services from these amazing therapists as they help us heal and remember Melody in an incredible, positive way. After a while, we had an idea to help other families. We created Melody Makers Music, a charitable fund, to raise money for the music therapy department at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital so they can continue to offer these amazing services to many families for years to come. We are a brand new organization and are full of ideas to expand our fundraising in the future. One idea we have puts a modern twist on the traditional lemonade stand. We are also hoping to organize a family-friendly musical festival. We would love to work with students to talk about their ideas to fundraise. We welcome volunteers of all ages to create and develop fundraisers around the community to spread the word about Melody Makers Music. Since our start just a few months ago, the music therapists have already started to use the donations and have purchased musical instruments for patients to have in their hospital rooms. (Including instruments native to their home country since children come to Cincinnati Children’s from all around the world.) They are also looking to purchase more adaptive technology to help children with physical needs to be able to enjoy the gift of music. To show their gratitude, the music therapists wrote Melody Makers Music a song and sent us a video to share with our donors to say thank you! You can view that here: https://thankview.com/video/10a7611419729c7a4?source=export Students and teachers can reach out to Melody’s family by emailing melodymakersmusic@outlook.com. We are happy to come to schools to answer questions from students and be a part of their philanthropy journey. If your school is not comfortable with having visitors, we would be more than happy to visit your school online or virtually. If you are interested in supporting our Melody Makers Music Fund, or for more information, you can visit www.melodymakersmusic.org. Thank you! |
|
| Does your organization have volunteer opportunities available for students? * | Yes, Grades 6 – 12 |
| List possible volunteer opportunities -or- a link to where they can be found on the web. | During these COVID times, the easiest way to volunteer is to spread awareness about Melody Makers Music Fund and conduct fundraisers to raise funds. We are open and flexible to engage students in projects they create to support our mission! |
| Volunteer coordinator | Hannah Gerth |
| Volunteer coordinator’s email address | hannah.gerth@cchmc.org |
