JACKSON — There is something to be said about four chords, the words that go with them in a song, and their combined ability to elicit a response from the listener.
For the children of Jackson’s Rosenauer Elementary School and their music teacher Melissa O’Keefe, their message is one of hope, encouragement and charity as they try to raise money for school children in Tanzania, Africa, with their renditions of two pop classics as part of the LaLaLove project.
“For me, it was a no-brainer. It’s a global community service,” said O’Keefe, 33, who has been the school’s music teacher since 2005. “First of all, it gets our kids to value what they have and not take it for granted. I think it’s really empowering for the kids to do something to help.”
LaLaLove, a program started by SiriusXM’s Kids Place Live, is a fundraising effort that runs from Oct. 17 to Nov. 28 and aims to help a group of students who attend Shepherds Junior in Arusha, Tanzania.
For those students, their education lasts until the seventh grade, where it ends due to the lack of another school.
“To build the school in Tanzania, the project needs $30,000,” O’Keefe said. “Do I think we’re going to raise $30,000? Probably not. But I don’t mind making a dent” in the costs.
About 325 students from the first through fifth grades sang portions of “Lean on Me” and “Don’t Stop Believing” for inclusion in a music video called “My Voice Is Powerful.”
In the video, the children are seen singing in front of a playground and in their classroom, and saying, “My voice is powerful.”
“We have had that song kicking around for a while and the kids love it. The project asks for a song with a message of love, and we wanted to do something awesome,” O’Keefe said.
According to O’Keefe, the video had to clear some hurdles with the school’s administration before the cameras could start rolling.
“It can kind of be a scary thing to put our kids up on the Internet, especially because they are little,” O’Keefe said. “I think it was brave of the administration [to allow this]. I give them a lot of credit.”
Once O’Keefe got the go-ahead, she recorded each class in the school, with the exception of the kindergarten classes, using a laptop computer.
After she put the sound files together to make it sound as if the 325 pupils were together at once to sing, students from Jackson Liberty High School mixed and edited the video as it exists on YouTube, with the help of Harry Ferone.
Since the song was uploaded to the popular video streaming website on Nov. 7, the clip has been viewed hundreds of times. More than $1,000 has been raised for the initiative in Africa, and Rosenauer is in a back-and-forth contest with Bristow Montessori School in Virginia for first place.
“If you look at our [student] demographics, over 20 percent of our kids get free or reduced lunch. For our kids to do this project to help someone else, that’s big,” O’Keefe said. “I feel like other schools can’t say the same thing.”
For teachers at Rosenauer, the video has been a source of pride, as word of the project spread through the staff, O’Keefe said.
“[The teachers] were so excited, showing everybody like it was their own, and that’s a huge compliment,” the music instructor said. “I was so delighted that the staff has taken this on like it’s theirs. Our school is small, and we put it together.”
As for the young stars of the video? Some initial butterflies were present before recording the video and audio, but the youngsters came through.
“It’s funny, because as soon as you tell a child you are about to record, they become completely different. The second I hit that red [record] button, they got a little nervous,” O’Keefe said. “Now that the video’s been up [online], the kids are just so proud of it.”
Regardless of what happens or how much money the school raises for the project in Tanzania, O’Keefe believes the effort was worthwhile for everyone involved.
“Even if we lose the contest, really, what’s the loss?” she asked. “We have a beautiful memory [the students] can hold onto forever and the kids feel so good for being able to help other children, and that is something you can’t take away from them.”
To watch the video and make a contribution to LaLaLove for Rosenauer Elementary School, visit the Internet website at http://tinyurl.com/rosenauer.