Giving the gift of music
A program of the Grand County Blues Society. Instruments for children and adults facing cancer and other serious life challenges.
Provide access and ownership of musical instruments for children and adults with cancer and other serious life challenges. Blue Star Connection also works with music therapists and hosts benefit concerts around the country to keep the work going.
NEED INFO — lock one official count. Older pages said 800 instruments / 80 hospitals; later pages said 1,200 kids / 100 hospitals; the draft About page said 1,400 people / 120+ programs. Also need what the program is doing this year.
Since 2007 we have helped 1,400+ Blue Stars. Many find us through social media, a festival tent, or word of mouth. We meet the Blue Star and their family, understand the passion for music, and plan instruction through a therapist or teacher. The instrument is theirs to own.
Blue Stars come to us during treatment. Whether the diagnosis is cancer or another life-threatening illness, music becomes part of recovery — what John Catt called “the cure for the cure.” Many hospitals have therapy rooms stocked with instruments we provided. When a Blue Star goes home, we often send an instrument with them.
Therapists are our strongest advocates. They know what each Blue Star needs. We place instruments with the therapist working directly with that person, and we send bulk instruments to populate practice rooms, community rooms, schools, and community events.
We have provided guitars, basses, harmonicas, violins, keyboards, flutes, and drum kits to more than 1,200 kids in the program. Blue Stars have lived in Colorado, Texas, California, Washington, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Florida, Illinois, South Dakota, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, Nebraska, Nevada, Maryland, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Oklahoma, Oregon, Arizona, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent and the Grenadines — and, once, a girl named Sneha in New Delhi, India. Sneha designed our first logo.
We have also lost original Blue Stars, among them Devon, Sneha, Brandon, Shakira, Adam, Amanda, and Trevor. They remain part of this story.
NEED INFO — confirm we still have permission to name those Stars and to keep Sneha’s story link. Photos of Dorian, Brian, and St. Louis music therapy will land here once the WordPress media export is in the repo.
Axe Grinder Luthier and volunteers at Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood built 20 concert ukuleles over a spring break and donated them to Blue Star Connection. Rocky Mountain PBS covered the story. We will embed that video when we have the file.
Suggested gifts from the previous Blue Star page. Confirm amounts before treating them as current.
Help pay for a guitar or keyboard for a Blue Star.
Help pay for an amp for a Blue Star.
Buy a guitar or keyboard for a Blue Star.
Buy a guitar and amp for a Blue Star.
Fund multiple instruments for a music therapy program or hospital.
A named gift — individual or business — for a therapy room or hospital.
NEED INFO — live donate embed / GiveButter URL.
The previous site thanked Jimmy Hall, Samantha Fish, Tommy Castro, Kat Riggins, My Blue Sky, Mike Zito, Warren Haynes & Gov’t Mule, and Big Head Todd & The Monsters. Videos lived on that page. We will restore them with the media export.
Program inquiries and instrument donations:
Art Ferrari · art.ferrari@grandblues.org
Blue Star Connection
P.O. Box 1530
Winter Park, CO 80482
Occasionally we receive an instrument that cannot be placed with a Blue Star. Those pieces are sold so the proceeds can buy something that can. NEED INFO: current Reverb shop URL.