Chords for a Cause

Using music to benefit children and build community

Background Information

Chords for a Cause gives an opportunity for people to come together to enjoy live music while supporting music students at the same time.  Owen chose to create Chords for a Cause because he loves playing and listening to music and wanted to do something to help students who can’t afford musical instruments. Owen created this event to raise awareness about the need for more funding for musical instruments, especially in the public-school systems.

Implementation of Project

Owen originally planned to have a Battle of the Bands event because he thought that would draw more people from all over the community.  He worked for months to recruit bands, set a date that worked for each band and find the best venue for the event. Ultimately, he realized that he needed to pare it down because he didn’t have enough time to make this happen before the end of May.

Owen reduced the event to a one-band benefit concert and created/sold t-shirts to help raise money for the benefit’s cause, Tunes for Tots, which is an organization that helps fund music programs for students in public schools and helps buy instruments for students who can’t afford them. Owen promoted the event through word-of mouth but sold the t-shirts through social media.

Results of Project

It was a great and well-attended event with nearly 200 people in attendance and Owen raised over $1200 for Tunes for Tots.  Owen spent countless hours for months, getting the band ready for its first concert and then invested about 50 hours of time, actually planning the event, buying the wood and building the stage, and designing and selling the t-shirts. Owen was fortunate to have several band members, parents and a few friends to help with building the stage and setting up/breaking down the concert. Because of the set-up/breakdown and distribution of t-shirts, his volunteers were so important to the success of this event.

“I am proud of how it all turned out and am so happy to be able to contribute so other kids can experience the joy of making music.”  – Owen Samet

What’s Next

Owen is going to continue Chords for a Cause for his junior and senior year of high school.  He thinks this was a great model to build on and that with more time, he can make this an even bigger and better event. Owen also thinks that he can dive deeper into his community and use his leadership skills to see how he might be able to have a hands-on impact with kids who want to learn to play instruments but don’t have the resources to do so.

“Overall, I learned so much during this project about planning, budgeting, managing volunteers and even, graphic design. I am excited to take all that I learned here to lead future projects that can make a difference!” – Owen Samet