Recycled Tunes is a nonprofit with the Gasparilla Music Festival that aims to bring the joy of music to every child in Tampa Bay. Recycled Tunes was started in 2015 as a partnership with Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit that provides musical instruments to underserved kids across the U.S.
The director, Cameron Williams, grew up in a musical family. When the opportunity to volunteer with the foundation showed itself, he accepted. Two years later he now leads the Recycled Tunes team, interacting with music teachers and students in perfect harmony.
“We get the instruments, we catalog them then we bring them to the right shop,” Williams said, “They repair and clean the instruments and then we find teachers and bring them the instruments. We tell people if they know anyone who needs an instrument to let us know and we try our best to bring them into the classroom.”
The mission of the festival is to promote local Tampa Bay business and promote music and education through a series of initiatives with financial support from Tampa based businesses and organizations.
Recycled Tunes aims to give children a musical outlet by offering free music lessons and a chance to perform on festival stages in large crowds. Each year they host several musical drives where people can donate musical instruments that are cleaned and refurbished in a number of host musical stores that are donated to local schools and other musical programs.
There have been studies that show when a child has musical education they receive educational benefits such as better self-discipline, stronger memorization skills and better ability to develop language and reasoning skills. Musical education also shows mental health benefits such as improved self-confidence and stress relief.
“We have a saying that music is life, that music matters, music is what brings people together,” Williams said, “For us to say, ‘Hey we the community we have your back,’ that’s what the music festival is all about.”
The Gasparilla Musical Festival had its ninth showcase this past March. The festival brings music lovers from all over to support artists, big and small. This past festival had musical acts from Big Freedia and Portugal the Man to local musicians like The Tampa Metropolitan Youth Orchestra and the School of Rock Tampa.
The dream of Recycled Tunes is to give every student an opportunity to find their passion and hone their musical skills and maybe one day play on the big Gasparilla stage.
“One of my visions for this program is that hopefully one day one of the kids that gets an instrument from our program gets on the Gasparilla stage one day,” said Williams, “That would be so cool, it would make this program come full circle, it’s going to happen one day.”
If you wish to get involved, you can contact Recycled Tunes at info@Gasparillamusic.com. The Gasparilla Musical Festival 2021 is scheduled to take place in the second week of March.
Featured image courtesy of https://gasparillamusic.com/recycled-tunes-2/
