Healing Powers: Fundraiser to Bring Ukuleles, Therapeutic Benefits to Hospitalized Kids

The healing powers of music will be taken to new heights on Saturday at the first New York fundraiser for the Ukulele Kids Club at the Polish American Hall in Port Washington on October 25.

The club provides free ukuleles to hospitalized children around the country, who are taught to play the instrument by music therapists. When the kids are discharged, they keep the ukuleles.

The concept was inspired by the organization’s founder Corey Bergman, a Hofstra University graduate and former New Yorker. Always passionate about music, Bergman found the art helped him cope with personal tragedy. Wanting to help others, Bergman, who had relocated to Miami, began working as a volunteer at Miami Children’s Hospital and Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, performing guitar for children who were being treated, and their families. According to Ukulele Kids Club, with instrument in hand, the children smiled. Their anxiety decreased. They were more relaxed.

“It’s been proven that music has a therapeutic benefit,” Bergman told UkuleleMag.com.

And the ukulele, because of its size and transportability has served as an ideal vehicle to deliver those benefits, especially because a guitar can be too unwieldy for those constricted by tubes as they undergoing hospital treatment.

To date, the Ukulele Kids Club has donated at least 150 ukuleles to more than 30 children’s hospitals in the United States, according to the Miami Herald. Those hospitals include Miami Children’s Hospital, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Locals will have the chance to donate to the cause Saturday at the Polish American Hall, at 5 Pulaski Place. The admission price is a suggested donation of $35 at the door, which covers the cost of a ukulele to a hospitalized child. There will be a cash bar, light refreshments, and live music.

Donations can also be made at theukc.org.