Honeywell Center Educational Outreach Program Lets Madison Students Write Song With Grammy Nominee
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
Seskin and the students debuted it to the school at an assembly Monday afternoon. During their Veterans Day program Nov. 11, the students will perform the song again.
Seskin’s visit with Madison – as well as Leesburg and Lincoln elementaries in the past two weeks – was provided at no charge to the schools thanks to the Honeywell Center Educational Outreach Program.
Traveling across the country, Seskin performs his anti-bullying program at schools. Part of his program includes his song “Don’t Laugh At Me,” which he also performed for the Madison students Monday.
Yesterday, however, he had the specific task of working with third- and sixth-graders to come up with a song for Veterans Day.
He worked with the third-graders first. They came up with 12 song titles with words like freedom, fighting and heroes. After some brainstorming and voting, the students decided to go with the song title “The Great Veterans.”
Seskin said he usually writes the chorus first, and the third-graders wrote the chorus for “The Great Veterans.” The sixth-graders liked what the third-graders came up with and created the other verses. He talked to the sixth-graders about using the verses to illustrate the point of the chorus.
“The thing I try to do is relate this to their creative writing,” Seskin said. “My goal is not about the impact of the song they wrote and what it says but that they’re proud of what they wrote. I try to impress on them to express themselves and be creative.”
Seskin has worked with the Honeywell Center Educational Outreach Program for about nine years.
Cathy Gatchel, Honeywell’s development director, said that since Seskin is part of the Outreach Program, there’s no charge to schools.
“This doesn’t happen everywhere in the nation,” Seskin said. “There aren’t Honeywell Outreaches everywhere. It’s a nice thing for schools to be able to sign up for programs and not worry about funding.”
Education Outreach Manager Teresa Galley said the Honeywell Center’s different programs were in front of almost 4,000 Warsaw Community Schools students last year.
The Honeywell Foundation, a public charity, recently annunced plans to raise $8 million to benefit its mission of providing artistic, social, cultural and recreational opportunities for all. Campaign contributions will grow the non-profit organization’s endowment fund, which provides financial stability for the foundation and its many programs and offerings, like the Educational Outreach.
“The Honeywell Foundation relies on earnings from its endowment to provide our exemplary programs and offerings,” said Executive Director Tod Minnich in a provided press release. “We are fortunate to have a loyal patron base that not only attends programs, but also provides philanthropic support. We appreciate all donations to the foundation and this campaign allows supporters a way to make a most meaningful contribution that will benefit generations to come.”
The $8 million in new endowment donations will provide support to some of the foundation’s core programs. The foundation received a $2.5 million matching grant that provides a dollar-for-dollar match for new and increased gifts. The $2.5 million match will establish a permanent endowment for the Educational Outreach Program.
This program provides low and no-cost educational opportunities for youth in 12 Indiana counties, including Kosciusko County. Annually, the program provides more than 45,000 student-learning opportunities.
So far, nearly $2 million in qualifying gifts have been raised, with the $500,000 needed by Dec. 31 in order to maximize the pledge.
“The Educational Outreach Program provides inspiring programs to youth,” stated Minnich. “Since 1998, the program has expanded from two counties to 12 and from a few hundred students to more than 45,000. This growth has come at a time when schools faced challenging budgets and many programs were either reduced or cut. The Educational Outreach Program helps provide students additional opportunities to enhance their learning experiences through art.”
For more information about the campaign, contact Gatchel at 260-563-1102, Ext. 525, or [email protected]
For more information about Seskin, visit his website at www.steveseskin.com[[In-content Ad]]
Seskin and the students debuted it to the school at an assembly Monday afternoon. During their Veterans Day program Nov. 11, the students will perform the song again.
Seskin’s visit with Madison – as well as Leesburg and Lincoln elementaries in the past two weeks – was provided at no charge to the schools thanks to the Honeywell Center Educational Outreach Program.
Traveling across the country, Seskin performs his anti-bullying program at schools. Part of his program includes his song “Don’t Laugh At Me,” which he also performed for the Madison students Monday.
Yesterday, however, he had the specific task of working with third- and sixth-graders to come up with a song for Veterans Day.
He worked with the third-graders first. They came up with 12 song titles with words like freedom, fighting and heroes. After some brainstorming and voting, the students decided to go with the song title “The Great Veterans.”
Seskin said he usually writes the chorus first, and the third-graders wrote the chorus for “The Great Veterans.” The sixth-graders liked what the third-graders came up with and created the other verses. He talked to the sixth-graders about using the verses to illustrate the point of the chorus.
“The thing I try to do is relate this to their creative writing,” Seskin said. “My goal is not about the impact of the song they wrote and what it says but that they’re proud of what they wrote. I try to impress on them to express themselves and be creative.”
Seskin has worked with the Honeywell Center Educational Outreach Program for about nine years.
Cathy Gatchel, Honeywell’s development director, said that since Seskin is part of the Outreach Program, there’s no charge to schools.
“This doesn’t happen everywhere in the nation,” Seskin said. “There aren’t Honeywell Outreaches everywhere. It’s a nice thing for schools to be able to sign up for programs and not worry about funding.”
Education Outreach Manager Teresa Galley said the Honeywell Center’s different programs were in front of almost 4,000 Warsaw Community Schools students last year.
The Honeywell Foundation, a public charity, recently annunced plans to raise $8 million to benefit its mission of providing artistic, social, cultural and recreational opportunities for all. Campaign contributions will grow the non-profit organization’s endowment fund, which provides financial stability for the foundation and its many programs and offerings, like the Educational Outreach.
“The Honeywell Foundation relies on earnings from its endowment to provide our exemplary programs and offerings,” said Executive Director Tod Minnich in a provided press release. “We are fortunate to have a loyal patron base that not only attends programs, but also provides philanthropic support. We appreciate all donations to the foundation and this campaign allows supporters a way to make a most meaningful contribution that will benefit generations to come.”
The $8 million in new endowment donations will provide support to some of the foundation’s core programs. The foundation received a $2.5 million matching grant that provides a dollar-for-dollar match for new and increased gifts. The $2.5 million match will establish a permanent endowment for the Educational Outreach Program.
This program provides low and no-cost educational opportunities for youth in 12 Indiana counties, including Kosciusko County. Annually, the program provides more than 45,000 student-learning opportunities.
So far, nearly $2 million in qualifying gifts have been raised, with the $500,000 needed by Dec. 31 in order to maximize the pledge.
“The Educational Outreach Program provides inspiring programs to youth,” stated Minnich. “Since 1998, the program has expanded from two counties to 12 and from a few hundred students to more than 45,000. This growth has come at a time when schools faced challenging budgets and many programs were either reduced or cut. The Educational Outreach Program helps provide students additional opportunities to enhance their learning experiences through art.”
For more information about the campaign, contact Gatchel at 260-563-1102, Ext. 525, or [email protected]
For more information about Seskin, visit his website at www.steveseskin.com[[In-content Ad]]
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