18 Feb 2008
Donation from Little Kids Rock Program and Dean Guitars
DALLAS–Dallas Independent School District students from Pleasant Grove Elementary School, 1614 N. St. Augustine Road, will receive a donation of guitars at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, February 19.
Dallas ISD Director of Fine Arts Elaine Thomas says, "The program will provide excellent enrichment to local campus music programs, reaching students that otherwise might never have the experience of playing guitar."
School Principal Ellen Perry, music teacher Daniel Tippol and 30 students will receive the first shipment of guitars, and honor the local donors making the Dallas ISD Little Kids Rock program possible.
Pleasant Grove Elementary School is just the first of more than two-dozen Dallas ISD campuses where students will soon be learning to play guitar. As part of the Little Kids Rock program, 34 teachers at 31 Dallas ISD schools have been trained to offer guitar classes to students at their schools. Both general classroom teachers and music teachers who know how to play guitar are participating in the program.
Little Kids Rock, a charity that restores and revitalizes music education in public schools, is providing guitars so teachers can begin their own guitar programs after or during school hours.
Funding for the Little Kids Rock Dallas ISD program has been provided by Dean Guitars, a memorial auction and concert for Darrell Abbott, a generous gift from the Hot Topic Foundation, with additional support from Marshall Amplification. Each of the participating teachers will receive an electric guitar and amp; in addition, music teachers will receive 30 acoustic guitars; regular classroom teachers will receive 10 acoustic guitars.