Music is key to our enjoyment of the holidays, but for people like my daughter Jessica – who had developmental disabilities that often made her experience of the world an assault upon her senses – music was a refuge.
It was essential to her ability to navigate the world. She couldn’t produce it very well, but she appreciated it beyond measure. When she died in a drowning accident, we buried her with her headphones on. Wherever she was going, we wanted to make sure she had those.
Now my family wants to make sure all people with disabilities – regardless of their ability and regardless of their income – can benefit from the power of music therapy at the MSU Community Music School. We’ve created the “Jess Prizes” (officially the Jessica Emery Schneider Music Therapy Services Fund).
We’ve raised a considerable amount, but to make sure the fund lives on after us, we need to raise another $10,000. Please help us do that.
For more information about the Jess Prizes and to make a gift, go to www.givingto.msu.edu/gift and search for the “Jessica Emery Schneider Music Therapy Services Fund.”
As the renowned neurologist and author Oliver Sacks has said: “Music can lift us out of depression or move us to tears – it is a remedy, a tonic… But for many of my patients, music is even more – it can provide access, even when no medication can, to movement, to speech, to life. For them, music is not a luxury, but a necessity.”
You can help fuel that kind of power. Thank you for making it happen!
