Chorus Gives Kids Hope, New Options

Dec. 25, 2007 — -- An arriving school bus at the Richard Nixon Library and Museum in Yorba Linda, Calif., holds little performers beaming with excitement and enthusiasm.

Clad in matching red holiday vests, the children are part of KidSingers, a city music program aimed at serving disadvantaged Orange County, Calif., children.

Unlike the glitzy and wealthy media images of Orange County, these children come from a far less affluent place. Many of the children, who range in age between 8 and 18, are Hispanic and are from the Santa Ana area.

Their families straddle the poverty line and try to ensure their children resist the lure of area gangs, drugs and danger. The choir has given the children hope and an option outside the streets and meets every Tuesday after school to practice.

"I don't get distracted by bad things. I get to do good stuff," said choir participant Miguel Rubio.

The program, which began in 1997, has also reinvigorated many of the children with increased self-esteem.

"I like to sing because it makes me energetic and powerful, makes me think I can do anything," said Gerry Balderas, who is also in the choir. "It makes my life better."

"I love singing mostly because it gets more passion into your life," said Karla Ortiz. "It makes you happy if you're a little sad. You can really embrace your feelings in singing."

The 100-voice children's chorus has most of its participants on scholarship and serves as a substitute for schools, which don't have a budget for such a program. KidSingers is paid entirely by private donations.

Its impact is both visible and audible with standouts like Ayesha Williams, who is one of the chorus' shining stars.

"Music takes me to another place. [It] is peace and it's harmony," she said. "I feel like I am at home with a family, and that everything is OK."

The second home for Williams helps her deal with her turbulent personal life. Pancreatic cancer killed her father, and her mother is in jail for selling drugs. Now her grandmother, who is raising her, has cancer. Still, she remains hopeful and recognizes what KidSingers has done for her.

"If I wasn't in this chorus, I would probably be in a gang," she said. "I know that's hard to believe, but it's true. Really, there's a lot of bad people at my school that I could've gotten mixed up with, but I didn't because I was in KidSingers."

Fellow participant Justin Duncan said the group helped him deal with bullies who picked on him at school and has changed his life.

"At school I have a lot of kids who don't think I'm cool and I don't fit in. Now that this saved me I feel so much better," he said.

"Eighty-seven percent of the kids in KidSingers had better self-confidence and better self-esteem," said Paul McNeff, KidSingers' director.

The choir's music, which brings joy to the listeners, also leaves its personal mark on the singer. The University of California did a study and found that the chorus' impact on these lives is extraordinary.

"They say music actually, literally leaves a mark on the brain that affects people in ways that we can't even figure out," said Beverly McNeff of KidSingers. "We can see it. We can measure it by the lives of these children. ... They feel hopeful, they feel excited. Something ignited in them, and they got that light."

It's a light that shined brightly as the singers ended their program, singing "this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine."

"They will always hold this experience in their hearts," Beverly McNeff said.

For more information about KidSingers visit kidsingers.org.