Salvation Army’s Captain LeOné Champion and Captain Julian Champion receive Knilling string instruments from SLM/Knilling VP Jim Eaton.
St. Louis Music recently donated Knilling violins, violas, and cellos, which will be the foundation of a new string program in an economically disadvantaged Chicago neighborhood. Vice President Jim Eaton personally welcomed representatives of the Salvation Army, Captain Julian Champion and Captain LeOné Champion, to the SLM offices and handed over the instruments in support of their cause.
“We serve in the Englewood community, which is one of the toughest neighborhoods in the country,” Champion explains. “There’s high unemployment and gang violence. Sadly, there are also no extracurricular activities for young people. So the Salvation Army made an investment in starting a music program.” The organization has already had success with a band program, a steel drum orchestra, and a drum corps. With the addition of these Knilling instruments, they will now start a string program.
“When Julian first approached me, I was immediately struck by the quality of the program he has put together,” Eaton says. “This was not a guy just looking for free instruments – he had a real purpose, an earnestness, and had structured a terrific program that gets results.” Inspired, Eaton went to CEO Mark Ragin, who quickly agreed to support the program. Eaton personally selected and prepared the instruments.
“We are not just a babysitting program,” Champion states adamantly. Interested children must study music theory, and those who succeed get to learn an instrument. But even at that point, they must stick with it and work at it or the privilege is taken away from them.
“That before they get the instrument, they know scales, clefs, notes – that’s really good,” Eaton points out, adding that in his experience as a teacher was enhanced when he started with kids who knew the fundamentals, allowing him to focus on teaching the instrument immediately.
The program draws from six elementary schools, with approximately 120 kids learning music every week. The teachers are drawn from VanderCook College of Music. Over 600 people in the community expressed an interest in the program, and with this latest donation of Knilling instruments by St. Louis Music, more will be accommodated.
“So many houses in this neighborhood are boarded up … how does one explain poverty?” Champion says. “It impacts every level of what it means to be human. Giving food and clothing is not enough. We want to reach those kids who don’t have an instrument, teach them what to do with an opportunity like this. We want to transform how they view the world, and transform their lives.”
