Music Heals: A concert to support Ryder's Bar Mitzvah Project

Friends and Family,

There are three things that are extremely important to me in my life- music, family and health. For my Mitzvah Project I am going to be raising money to provide ukuleles for kids at Evanston Hospital through the Ukulele Kids Club, Inc. This program gives every child their own ukulele along with music therapy during their stay at the hospital. Music is  very important to me because it gives me a sense of happiness and healing. Music has been found to help people through hard times by lowering their stress and anxiety and impacting their lives and health in a positive way.

Since a ukulele is so small and easy to learn, it is a great instrument for kids to get while they are in the hospital. The hospital I am providing ukuleles for is the Child Life Department at Evanston Hospital. This hospital is important to me because it is a place where my younger brother, Casey, has spent a lot of time. Casey has a disease called Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE). EoE is a chronic disease that causes difficulty swallowing, chest and stomach pain, nausea and vomiting. He has to follow a special diet and routinely has doctor appointments, tests and procedures at Evanston Hospital. When Casey is there, he uses the child life area and I know how important it is to him and other kids who are patients there. I know that if I can add ukuleles to the child life department, and a little bit of music, I will be able to provide comfort, joy and healing to kids like my brother during rough times at the hospital. 

I am putting together a virtual concert to raise money for the Ukulele Kids Club. While I would have liked this concert to take place in person, the current situation with COVID does not allow me to perform for many people at this time. Instead of selling tickets, we hope that you can make a donation so I can support the Ukulele Kids Club, Inc in honor of my mitzvah project. Every donation will count as a “ticket” to my virtual concert. We will be sending a link to the virtual concert to every person who makes a donation as soon as we are able to record our music together. For anyone who makes a donation before January 31st, we will include your name on our list of donors at the end of our recorded concert. We are hopeful the concert will be completed, filmed and sent out to donors by the first week in March.

Thank you for supporting my mitzvah project and the things that are so important to me.

-Ryder