Exceptional Parent (EP): Why did you decide to start Harmonikids?
Gary Allegretto (GA): In 1986 I was volunteering by playing music with kids at the Sloan Kettering Hospital play room in New York and saw how all of the kids really gravitated to the harmonica.
EP: Approximately how many children have you taken your program to since its inception?
GA: Thousands.
EP: What is your goal when you visit a group of children who have special needs and disabilities?
GA: I have been providing music therapy to children with special needs for over 15 years by giving them shiny new harmonicas and teaching them fun and child-friendly songs. This simple concept provides the therapeutic healing power of music to kids with incredible material, physical, and/or emotional challenges, widely ranging from traumatic stress, to abuse or abandonment, to health problems, to terminal illness. I visit facilities ranging from children's hospitals, Ronald McDonald Houses, burn recovery centers, juvenile homes, gang risk program centers, cerebral palsy centers, and orphanages. The results have been miraculous and heartwarming. Indeed, in addition to the stress relieving physical benefits of my unique programs, I have seen music replenish self-esteem, confidence, hope, and joy into children's lives.
Though we provide a fun, educational, and entertaining activity, it is much more than just a stress relieving and entertaining diversion for the kids. Playing music on a harmonica inherently provides joy, promotes confidence, and replenishes self-esteem. Kids with special needs are often learning to cope with what they can no longer do and what they no longer have in their lives. Harmonikids gives them an activity to focus on what they can do and what they do have.
Further, kids are instantly and irresistibly drawn to the harmonica. Because of its size, simplicity, warm voice-like tone, and portability, the harmonica becomes an instant and constant companion or "friend" to kids in need. In hospitals, I often teach kids who are thrilled to be able to participate, even though they are hooked up on IVs and other apparatus in their hospital beds or wheelchairs. Traumatized children are delighted to have this shiny little music-making instrument to hold and carry in their hands. They giggle and beam with joy. The instrument becomes an extension of their voice –a wonderful means to express themselves creatively, often at a time in their lives when self-expression is vital to their recovery and development. As I often like to say, “Through Harmonikids, the universal healing power of music can be found just under a kids nose!”
The power of music in accomplishing this is extraordinary. For some, it is like a seed that you plant that grows later. For others, it is instantaneous, healing, and even miraculous. For example, for one child I taught, the harmonica provided the inspiration and pathway to breathe from his mouth again (an ability he had lost as a result of a brain tumor operation). I witnessed another child find a way to play his favorite song, "You Are My Sunshine," in spite of his blindness and lack of muscle control due to cerebral palsy. Astonishingly, I witnessed another child (who was a cancer amputee patient, and so severely autistic that he had almost no communicative contact with the outside world) suddenly and miraculously play like a professional…with no prior musical experience or exposure!
EP: What is the common reaction that these children have to the harmonicas? GA: Joy and fascination... followed by smiles and giggles!
EP: What is the age range of those you visit?
GA: Ages five and up.
EP: How often do you travel and where are some of the places your organization has brought you to?
GA: Harmonikids has been all over the United States and to other countries, such as Canada, Australia, and Indonesia. Of special note, in 2005 I took 1000 harmonicas and gave lessons to children in the refugee camps and orphanages of North Sumatra who were severely traumatized by the Tsunami. I provided the same aid to the traumatized kids evacuated from New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina and recently returned to work with kids at the only school to reopen in the lower ninth ward there.
EP: Are there any requirements for the places that you will visit?
GA: Just that they have kids in need.
EP: Where do you hope to take your organization in the future?
GA: Anywhere kids may benefit from music. I would like to work with the children of the soldiers fighting in Iraq. I would also like to work with kids in Africa, and those affected by the terrible earthquake in China.
Harmonikids is a 501(c)3 non profit organization. Tax-deductible donations enable them to keep helping special needs kids...all around the world. For information on how to donate visit www.harmonikids.com .