Infuse U.S. Classrooms with Music for Learning!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for empowering all of us at GITC to pour our hearts, minds, energy and resources into the lives of students and teachers in 2021, giving them hope, joy, and a chance to improve their quality of life and learning everyday through learning to make music!

As 2022 begins, we want to share how, with your support, our small organization was able to make a difference here in our own hometown, San Diego, thanks to you. This city is GITC’s hub, and is a wonderful example of how, with your help, our programs are bringing the joy of musical learning to thousands of teachers and students in many cities and towns throughout the USA. Everything we are learning here and any new approach we pilot in the local schools leads to improvements in our programs everywhere!

With your inspiring support, our team was able to provide 63 online professional development courses for teachers and support staff, plus 14 specialized workshops, with a total attendance of 1345 teachers from across the country.!

Here in San Diego, we provided 65 co-teaching artist residencies in virtual and hybrid classrooms in 13 elementary schools, reaching 1438 students and helping 55 teachers build their musical leadership skills in the classroom, working directly with their students. This included getting an instrument for every single student!

We brought a summer of learning and fun through intimate GITC’s Summer Strummers Clubs,each holding 18-20 students, helping 298 children total in seven different locations throughout the City of San Diego recover from pandemic learning loss and the trauma of social isolation. These clubs led to so much resilience, laughter, and fabulous student creativity! They also made the local and national news.

Just last month, GITC was honored to receive the George Chamberlin Community Leadership Award. We were recognized by San Diego County Credit Union® (SDCCU®), one of San Diego’s largest locally-owned financial institutions, for the positive impact we're making in the San Diego community. The award recognizes individuals and organizations that devote their time, talents and resources to helping others and making San Diego a better place to live. 

We have been able to accomplish all this and so much more in 2021 with your support. Thank you for standing by our mission, supporting our efforts, and encouraging us to keep going. It isn’t easy by any means, and your gifts speak volumes.

We deeply appreciate your generosity and, with your ongoing participation, we can make a huge impact for kids and teachers in 2022. We thank you for your blessings and gifts to do this work. 

You can visit us at https://www.guitarsintheclassroom.org/blog to learn more. GITC blogs give you reports from our classrooms. You can also read more about the George Chamberlin Community Leadership Award as well as meet some of the dedicated classroom teachers who are making a difference with music.

With deepest appreciation for your commitment and care,

Jess and Gail