Summer Camps

Songs for Kids Center makes everyone a rock star

Photo by Mary Caroline Russell

BY CLARE S. RICHIE

Located behind the Skyview Ferris wheel in Downtown, the Songs for Kids Center provides free interactive music programming to qualified children and young adults.

“If you or someone you know has an injury, illness or disability – we’re here to perform with you, teach you an instrument or skill, or invite you to have a sensory experience,” said Josh Rifkind, founder of Songs for Kids (SFK).

The center houses a professional performance area, recording studio, and a DJ station.

“It’s an extension of everything we’ve learned and do,” Rifkind said. “We have SFK mentors here six days a week. Families come in at all times. We just had a 22-yearold who was working on singing and drumming and now we have a 6-year-old who’s been coming here since she was 3.”

Allison Russell, mom of the 6-year-old, learned of SFK when they performed at Camp Krazy Legs, a camp for children with spina bifida hosted at Camp Twin Lakes. Her daughter’s friends are starting extracurriculars, and Russell likes that her daughter has a low-pressure activity that gives her a creative outlet, too.

“She loves to explore everything here and is slowly starting to focus on trying to learn the keyboard,” Russell said. “Her fine motor is significantly delayed, but it’s been great for her to practice and have fun.”

For 16 years, SFK musicians have performed mini concerts and bedside visits in hospitals across the U.S. It’s a passion that grew from Rifkind’s musician/producer background and idolizing his father who worked as a doctor.

In 2013, Rifkind and founding board member Sanjay Kothari went on a roadtrip and performed at nearly every children’s hospital in the U.S.

“We went to some hospitals that were over 1,000 miles out of the way in the wrong direction and played for an hour,” Rifkind said. “We did 350 performances in 250 days at 249 children’s hospitals. We didn’t cancel a single show.”

As Rifkind interacted with young patients, he saw how much they enjoyed singing along, writing songs, or trying instruments.

“It really grew into a mentorship situation,” Rifkind said. “In 2015, we began the journey to open a center, which ultimately opened in 2018.”

Right before the pandemic, SFK was doing 1,000 performances a year and was on track to do several thousand mentorship sessions.

“And now we’re back,” Rifkind said. “It’s a lot of N95 [mask] wearing. We practice a lot of safety protocols.”

SFK works to pair new participants with a mentor who could be a drummer, guitar player, singer or songwriter – depending on what the participant wants to explore. Manager of the music mentorship program, Weston Taylor, has mentored hundreds of young people at SFK - including 22-year-old Bennett.

“He liked to cover songs,” Taylor said. “He had tons of his own lyrics sitting around, but he didn’t know how to make a song out of them. We spent several weeks creating melodies, really plotting it out. Within a month of finishing that song we were able to perform it at Shaky Knees on the main stage [last October]. That was awesome.”

There are no expectations at the center except for having fun.

“We’re sneaky. Our fun can lead to learning something,” Rifkind said.

Thanks to individual contributors, SFK is completely free, a fact that continues to pleasantly surprise families. Fundraisers like the June 500 Songs for Kids (dates TBD), which features a couple hundred bands spread out over a few weekends, also help make SFK possible.

“Before we opened, I dreamed of people working with their mentors in the space and of the energy of activity and creativity,” Rifkind said. “And when we get really busy, it’s exactly like that picture in my head.”