{"id":1952,"date":"2014-05-10T11:07:47","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T16:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2014-05-10T11:07:47","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T16:07:47","slug":"summer-camp-and-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/ramblings\/summer-camp-and-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Camp and Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You know who <a href=\"http:\/\/studiojjk.com\">Jarrett Krosoczka<\/a> is, right? \u00a0Of course you do. \u00a0If you don&#8217;t, take a little bit and watch his Ted Talk. \u00a0I&#8217;ll still be here:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_k0ywFgMpFk\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Welcome back! \u00a0Pretty great, right?<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve known Jarrett for something like seven or eight years. \u00a0He moved to Florence not long after we started the show on Valley Free Radio, and came by the show to talk about <em>Punk Farm<\/em>. \u00a0After we moved the show over to The River, <a href=\"http:\/\/wrsi.com\/monte\/the-man-behind-the-meltdown-jarrett-j-krosoczka\/\">things came together<\/a>, as sometimes they do, and we co-created the <a href=\"http:\/\/rivermeltdown.com\">Meltdown<\/a>. \u00a0I can&#8217;t even begin to describe how great it is to work with him and Gina\u00a0every year\u00a0on making it what we humbly think is the best kids&#8217; music and book event around.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn&#8217;t until a lot later that I found out about his remarkable story (really, watch the video &#8211; it&#8217;s his story to tell, not mine). \u00a0And every time we talk about his story, it&#8217;s even clearer to me that the foundation of it is his grandparents (who raised him) and the Worcester Art Museum (where he got early art education, supported by his grandparents). \u00a0They&#8217;re who figured out &#8212; in not-easy circumstances &#8212; how to cultivate the hilarious and creative talent that is Jarrett. \u00a0They made it so he could fulfill\u00a0his dreams.<\/p>\n<p>He now gives back &#8212; and honors his grandparents &#8212; by helping <a href=\"http:\/\/www.studiojjk.com\/joeandshirlscholarships.html\">raise money for scholarships<\/a>\u00a0to the Worcester Art Museum in their name, to help other kids pursue their dreams, or even just to have a creative and fun break during the summer. \u00a0Classes like this can make a tremendous difference, not just for those kids who will be the next Jarrett.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the auction for that doesn&#8217;t come up again until December!&#8221; you protest (accurately). \u00a0True enough. \u00a0But if you&#8217;re like us, you&#8217;re probably filling out (or putting off filling out) your kids&#8217; summer camp medical forms. \u00a0And right now, there are some parents in central Massachusetts\u00a0who are wishing they could send their kids to art classes at the Worcester Art Museum, and there&#8217;s more than finding their vaccination records in the way. \u00a0So take a minute and make a contribution. \u00a0There are a couple of ways you can do so:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/mbtoLL.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1953\" src=\"http:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/mbtoLL-231x300.jpg\" alt=\"mbtoLL\" width=\"231\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a>First, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indiebound.org\/book\/9780983854517\">go buy a copy<\/a> of\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.studiojjk.com\/10yearsketchbook.html\">Monkey Boy to Lunch Lady<\/a> &#8211; The Sketchbooks of Jarrett J. Krosoczka<\/em>. \u00a0100% of the proceeds go to the Joe and Shirl Scholarship.<\/p>\n<p>Or just write a check to the &#8220;Worcester Art Museum&#8221; with &#8220;Joe and Shirl Scholarship&#8221; in the memo line and mail it to Suzy Bonner, Worcester Art Museum, 55 Salisbury St., Worcester, MA 01609.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, Dena and I decided that we&#8217;d donate any\u00a0money I make from the kids&#8217; music side of things to various non-profits, and this year, we are\u00a0thrilled to be able to fund a half-dozen or so kids going to an art class at Worcester, in honor of Jarrett&#8217;s grandparents, from Meltdown proceeds.<\/p>\n<p>So:\u00a0When you&#8217;re filling our the forms for summer\u00a0classes and camps for your kids, if you&#8217;ve got a few extra bucks, send it on to help some kids who need it. \u00a0Or if you go to the Meltdown (which is, after all, free!), think about how much fun you have, figure out a dollar figure associated with it, and send it off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You know who Jarrett Krosoczka is, right? \u00a0Of course you do. \u00a0If you don&#8217;t, take a little bit and watch his Ted Talk. \u00a0I&#8217;ll still be here: Welcome back! \u00a0Pretty great, right? I&#8217;ve known Jarrett for something like seven or eight years. \u00a0He moved to Florence not long after we started the show on Valley [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparetherock.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}