Chatham Teen Gives Youth Musicians Free Tuneup

CHATHAM, NJ - What began as a Girl Scout Project has blossomed into masterwork of music making as Chatham High School's Julia Raskin has created a program designed to help youth musicians prepare for the fall.

"The purpose of the camp was for my Girl Scout Gold Award Project for which I was asked to address a problem in my community and take action. After years of seeing my peers not practice their instruments over the summer and struggle re-learning them at the beginning of the school year was something I saw that could be fixed with some work," Raskin said.

Raskin launched a music mentoring camp at the Library of the Chathams which is called August Back, where older Chatham High School musicians give back to the community by working with elementary musicians of their respective instruments and help the younger students get tuned up before the school year.

The program is free and takes place three nights in late August to refresh.

"This was an important idea to me because as an avid flautist and pianist of 13 years myself, I wanted to alleviate the stress of practicing and showcase the great music community that Chatham has to offer," Raskin said. "I have made many close friends through participating in music ensembles in high school, something many kids don't get the opportunity to do because they give up on their instruments early on."

Raskin said the music mentors are a positive influence on the younger musicians and demonstrated the fun and social side of music as we were a team helping and coordinating.

"I have been running the camp for two years already, and even though I have already received my Gold Award, I decided to run the camp again this summer due to the positive feedback from the returning campers each year," she said. "Seeing the same faces plus new ones each year shows me that this is a program that interests young musicians and identifies that music can be fun.

According to Raskin, a typical day sees the mentors meeting the campers and splitting off with them depending on their instrument. They spend some time talking and getting to know each other, and after assessing the camper's skill level, the mentor will use their judgement to determine how to work with them.

"Whether that is learning fingerings, refreshing on scales, or learning new rhythms and pieces. Often times mentors will play duets together with the campers or organize them to play music together. Parents are often also a part of the camp and like to meet the mentors and ask questions," Raskin said. "I think this is really important, especially if they do not have older kids who already experienced the music program."

Those who want to get involved only need to sign up at the library. Those who wish to mentor need to be qualified.

"To volunteer, someone would have to be skilled in a particular instrument or able to help depending on the campers' skill level," Raskin said. "I have a website, augustback.org, which lists some mentors that are associated in the program and are all section leaders in Chatham High School's Wind Ensemble."

As for the future of the program, Raskin is looking to grow it.

"I hope that in the future I am able to branch out to other neighboring towns to implement this type of program- that connects older and younger student musicians together to showcase the fun, social, and beneficial aspects of music and eliminate the dread of practicing or going to music lessons," she said. "One thing that I am interested is doing a music outreach and expand this idea to towns where there is limited budgets for music or the residents do not have the influence or role models to get involved with music."

For more information, visit the website augustback.org

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