Celebrating The Arts Festival - Oahu, HI
February 26, 2010On February 26, 2010, Sunset Elementary School put on an event to gain support and donations for their arts program. The appropriately titled “Celebrating the Arts” event was held at the picturesque Waimea Valley. It featured silent and live auctions as well as musical performances by Paula Fuga, Jack Johnson, and of course Jake Shimabukuro.
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MIGM manned a booth, where we featured the exclusive MIGM ukulele. While the ukulele attracted the guests to our booth, our message (and the free stickers) kept them around. With over 400 guests in attendance this was a perfect event for Music Is Good Medicine to try and get our message out there. We received a lot of good response to our 4 Strings 4 Kids program, but nothing could top the excitement about Jake’s performance.
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“Jake is amazing! Will he sign my ukulele?” “Jake’s performing tonight? I better get seats now!” “Jake’s my idol, Can I meet him after his performance?” It was apparent that Jake’s performance was the feature presentation. When it came time for Jake’s performance there was barely any standing room. There were so many spectators trying to get a glimpse at the ukulele virtuoso that some settled for sitting in the grass, just grateful to be able to hear him perform.
![](http://images.jakeshimabukuro.com.oniricfs.us/uploads/reports/charityevents/artsevent10/DSCF3381.jpg")
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Minutes before the show the crowd was buzzing with excitement, but when Jake finally took the stage, it felt as if all of Waimea Valley shook with eruption from the applause. After a quick introduction he spoke about his childhood and how music played a key role. Playing the ukulele and drums helped him learn about discipline and how to work with others to achieve a goal. By being so involved with music at a young age he kept out of trouble and developed a passion that would later lead to his musical career.
![](http://images.jakeshimabukuro.com.oniricfs.us/uploads/reports/charityevents/artsevent10/DSCF3383.jpg")
As Jake was performing, only the occasional click of a camera going off could be heard. At the end of “Let’s Dance” the crowd once again, shook the valley. Jake ended the night with “Crazy G” for the Sunset Elementary kids who were dancing in front of the stage. After the performance, many of the spectators stuck around to get a quick picture or an autograph from Jake.
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The Celebrating the Arts event went over well. Sunset Beach Elementary School raised over $18,000 to help their Arts Program. Music Is Good Medicine is proud to support a school and community that are aware of how valuable music as well as creativity is to a child’s education. MIGM would like to give a big mahalo to Jeff Cicatko who coordinated this event.