6 minute read
More Kids, More Community, More Music Foundation!
Written by FRANCES KIDD
Photos Courtesy of PATHWAYS CENTER
Chad Staples seeks to cultivate community through the unifying art of playing music. Staples is the founder and director of More Music Foundation, a Coweta nonprofit with a mission to provide music instruction, knowledge, instruments and community to children.
“This program changes the way kids think,” says Staples. “They see they can set a goal and reach it.”
He has seen that realization change children’s lives.
Staples formerly worked as a painter at Delta Airlines where he sustained two on-the-job injuries, each resulting in back surgery that required a long recovery. But he made good use of his time. After the first surgery, Staples returned to Delta in a job with the Delta Care and Scholarship Fund where he was in charge of the annual 5K race. Under his leadership, the race was more successful than ever, leading Delta to assign him to organize the next year’s race, which raised an astonishing $100,000.
Facing another long recovery after his second surgery, Staples started going to Bridging the Gap, in Newnan, on Saturdays to sing and play his guitar. Parents began to talk with him about their kids wanting to learn music, and he discovered a need for music education for at-risk, low-income kids. He left Delta in December 2020 and, the next month, wrote the first business plan for More Music Foundation. A little more than a year later, the organization launched its first program.
“I attribute it to several factors: my time in the nonprofit world at Delta, understanding the need while serving at Bridging the Gap, and playing and loving music my whole life,” says Staples, noting how the generosity of family and friends helped raise the initial funding.
Among the foundation’s programs are workshops at Ruth Hill Elementary School every third Saturday and Music Mondays at Pathways Center, in Newnan, where Staples plays music with younger clients and encourages them to use music to help deal with their issues.
A behavioral health care organization, Pathways Center serves children, adolescents and adults by addressing an array of mental health and substance abuse issues. Staples says the work he does there is the most difficult thing he does – but is also very rewarding.
“We’ve seen how Chad’s work relates to the kids,” says Abigail Alvarez, Pathways’ director of client engagement who oversees curriculum development for therapeutic intervention programs. “He comes in and is able to gauge how his audience is and can adjust his day’s program to them.”
Walk into the reception area at Pathways, and it’s impossible to miss the large plexiglass box in the wall. In July, it was stocked with different colored ping pong balls featuring the initials of Pathways clients. Each color represented a different activity at Pathways – the activity the client enjoyed most that day.
“It’s in the front lobby,” says Alvarez, “because when parents come to pick up their child, we want them to see what has been most important to their child, so they can think about introducing similar activities at home.” (On the day NCM visited, most of the ping pong balls were orange, representing music activities.)
Another popular More Music Foundation program is Learn to Earn. Partnering with local Boys & Girls Clubs, Staples teaches music at clubs twice a week. Students who have shown significant advancement earn a guitar and a scholarship for weekly private music lessons.
Theresa River and her granddaughter Serenity “Reni” Inman met Staples at Bridging the Gap and again at a nonprofit event where Staples asked her how things were going. River told him that she and her late husband had always wanted Reni to take piano lessons. Staples offered to sponsor Reni, and local piano teacher Cheryl Woods agreed to give Reni lessons.
But Staples didn’t stop there. He also procured a donated keyboard for Reni so that she could practice her music at home.
“She’s been taking lessons for a little over a year, and last year she was a color guard for the band at East Coweta, where she is a sophomore this fall,” says River. “Now that she’s more confident with her piano, she’s joining the band and will be playing the synthesizer.”
Ann McPherson Flemming, founder of Elevating Grace Foundation, met Staples during an online foster care training class. A few months later, her son Jaden started going to the Boys & Girls Club where he met Staples; after completing the Learn to Earn program in 2022, Jaden received a guitar in a presentation at Ruth Hill Elementary.
“Jaden was overwhelmed with emotions,” says Flemming. “I’m so honored that Chad’s made us a part of this. Jaden has always loved music and this experience has been the driving force for him to break out of his shyness. He’s now in sixth grade at Arnall Middle where he’s joined the chorus at school. He’s lost his anxiety at being the center of attention.”
Both Reni and Jaden were part of the 2022 Make More Music Festival, a concert celebrating the foundation's first anniversary with students entertaining the guests.
To provide even more music instruction, Staples raises money and develops partnerships with local music teachers, both in the county school system and private teachers. In 2022, More Music partnered with Bridging the Gap’s Christmas in Coweta by providing keyboards and one lesson a month to 20 students. In May, More Music was the recipient of a $15,000 grant from Newnan Junior Service League.
Along with music instruction, the foundation strives to provide a sense of community by getting the music kids together for bowling, eating and hanging out, according to Staples.
“I gauge our success from watching the kids figure out that they can do something difficult,” says Staples. “Success with music can change a child’s cognitive and social abilities, and it transcends into all parts of their life.”
When asked what the foundation needs most, Staples immediately responds: donated instruments in good condition.
“But my real dream,” he adds, “is to have our own building so the kids know they have a place they can always come and play music.” NCM
