Teenagers, Music Production, and Ping Pong Balls ... An Experiment in Family Volunteering Chapter 9

Teenagers, Music Production, and Ping Pong Balls ... An Experiment in Family Volunteering Chapter 9

Tim Streeter Tim Streeter

Tim Streeter

发布日期: 2018年12月29日
+ 关注

Somehow I find myself posting about our September Family Volunteering in December, but better late than never!  This was the last one I got to choose so I wanted to make sure I felt a strong personal connection to it since I have learned that makes a big difference for me. It was actually an easy choice as I had known which organization I wanted to support for several months.

The Neutral Zone in Ann Arbor is truly an amazing place. It was founded by teens to provide a venue for social, cultural, educational, recreational, and creative opportunities for high school teens. Today the organization supports an after school drop in space, weekend concerts and special events, and hosts over 20 after school programs in visual and media arts, music performance and technology, literary arts, community leadership and education. During the school year approximately 350 young people visit weekly.

The space includes an art studio, music studio, live performance area, kitchen stocked with food, a study/tutoring area, video game area, ping pong table, billiards table, and foosball table, and social space for just hanging out. I love that it is an intentionally inclusive space - inviting those who may be otherwise unsupervised and at risk as well as those who have other options but want to develop their crafts - or simply expand their minds culturally. For those that can pay, it costs $200 for for a year of unlimited visits and programming. For those that cannot pay, there are scholarships sponsored by local businesses. No teen is turned away.

With two teenage boys in high school, it is easy to see the personal connection. However, it is not only the demographic that makes it personal. The Neutral Zone offers extensive programming to encourage teens to develop their interests in music production, including their own recording studio, record label, songwriting courses, and training in latest music production hardware and software. Having discovered my own passion for music production only ten years ago, I think it is awesome to help nurture this interest in young kids. And both the equipment and the instructors are top notch.

So my struggle was not to find an organization to support, but rather how we could have a family volunteering event to support the Neutral Zone. The volunteering opportunities are primarily long-term and require specific skills, with the exception of support for summer concerts which we already missed. Rather than choose a different organization I felt less connected to, I decided to create our own event.

There is an Amazon wishlist on their website, but I wanted my kids to learn a bit more about the organization and experience it. So we took a couple of hours one afternoon to go downtown to introduce ourselves, explore the site, and ask them what items from the wishlist they needed the most. We were greeted by Verniece (who leads the songwriting course) and Charlie (who leads the music programs). They were happy to show us around, share highlights of recent music releases and concerts, and asked our kids what they were most interested in.

In the end, we purchased a couple of microphone stands, ping pong paddles, and ping pong balls - which weren’t on the wishlist but were apparently the items most in need. While I’d prefer to have donated time as a family vs. purchasing items, I felt like we spent enough time there that my wife and kids could understand why I am so attracted to this organization. And I am certain we will continue to support it in different ways for years to come.

Although I had heard of this place and walked by it many times, I didn’t really even know what it was until it showed up in our searches for local volunteering opportunities earlier this year. It makes me wonder what other amazing places I have missed because I wasn’t paying enough attention. It has my attention now!

This is Chapter 9 of a 12-part series on Family Volunteering. Previous posts can be accessed below:



要查看或添加评论，请登录

Tim Streeter的更多文章

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了