Music program launched

New Creation Baptist Church invites youngsters to learn

How is some money confiscated from criminals used? The Morning Journal began today a twopart series on a new Great Expectations Music program providing music lessons for underprivileged children.

Nov. 12: How the program began. Nov. 13: A student and a teacher respond.

Sunday afternoons find 18 underprivileged youngsters learning to tickle the ivories at New Creation Baptist Church in Lorain.

The fledgling Great Expectations Music program received $13,000 from two grants funded by money confiscated from criminals.

That startup money bought electronic keyboards and drums, said Lorain County

Prosecutor Dennis Will.

When police departments find cash on drug raids, for example, a certain amount of the confiscated money must be used for education, Will said.

He had worked with the Rev. Marilyn Parker-Jeffries, pastor of the church at 1929 W. 23rd St. in Lorain, in the past through the Lorain Police Department.

“She came to me and wanted to institute the music program,” Will said. “At the time, Lorain City Schools didn’t have one.

“The money was to pay for instructors for children, and the keyboards. Then recently, she wanted to add a drum line. The money was provided in two increments.”

Parker-Jeffries says her motivation was the importance of music in early childhood education.

“At the elementary level, they get that foundation,” she said. “And when I found out that wasn’t happening in the school district any more, that bothered me.”

Parker-Jeffries said a challenge was to find a niche for ministering to youth and children, since other organizations handle after-school tutoring.

“An after-school tutoring

program wasn’t a need,” she said. “The kids within our church wanted a music program. We said, ‘Okay, but we’re not just going to do it for our church.’”

The small church was able to start the program because “God provides,” Parker-Jeffries said.

In addition to the prosecutor’s office, Parker-Jeffries applied for a Children in Poverty grant from the American Baptist Association, among other grants.

“This year, we tried our first fundraiser,”she said. “It was a steak fry. It went pretty good.

“Now, we have five kids on a waiting list. Our goal is to raise exposure to the program with the drum line. I’m really excited about that. They’ll be marching in parades and festivals and going places.”

One of the challenges holding Great Expectations back from growth is the size of the church.

So fundraising is needed for a move, Parker-Jeffries said.

“We may have to move off site,” she said. “We’re talking about rental space.

“We will be challenged when the drum line starts practicing upstairs. Probably on average, an additional $6,000 can cover the additional space.”

Pre-testing the students

To measure the effectiveness of the program, the children took a pre-test when they registered, she said.

“Studies of kids who are involved in music show improvement in those areas,” Parker-Jeffries said. “Last school year, 67 percent of the kids showed improvement of at least one grade level in at least one subject.

“So, that was kind of positive for me to see that. The percentage may have been better except for with this population, they’re transient. Some of the kids we lost when their families moved, so it was really hard to measure them.”

The Great Expectations Music Program meets 2-4 p.m. Sundays in a classroom at the church for keyboard lessons grouped by experience level.

Teachers Daniel Spearman and Zaire Darden graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Rather than paying for the weekly lessons, the parents agree to volunteer for two fundraisers a year, ParkerJeffries said.

Memorable overnight trips

The fundraisers also pay for overnight field trips so children can see other parts of the country and can stay

in a nice hotel, she said.

For a trip to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati, the group needed to raise $5,000.

“They said, ‘We’ll never do that,’” Parker-Jeffries said. “You should have seen their faces when they found out we had the money to go.

“We put them on this brand new bus. We took them to the hotel. Their eyes were so big. We told them nothing is too hard if you work for it.

“We did the new African American Museum in Washington, D.C. We did two nights there,” Parker-Jeffries said. “So, I think in 2018, we will take them to Niagara Falls. I just want to expose them so they can see there can be more to their world than this small community that surrounds them.”

The students are responding positively, adding four remain on a waiting list, she said.

Will said he hopes the music lessons will impact youth in a positive way in Lorain.

He said he appreciated the programs and strong support to the neighborhood.

“It was lower-income and a good outreach,” Will said. “We tried to provide the money to a program that would make a difference.

“They had a recital at the end of summer. Someone I knew went to it. For kids that age, they were quite good.”