Moloka`i Middle School - Moloka`i, Hawaii
December 04, 2007Moloka`i only offers one school, for every grade and every age. Moloka`i Middle School was formerly combined with Moloka`i High and Intermediate School and recently detached to a separate entity. Thank you Matthew Helm, Moloka`i Middle School’s music instructor, for inviting Jake to share the power of music with the students. Jake loves journeying to Moloka`i which holds precious childhood memories since it is the home of his grandmother.
Matthew, the instructor for a music enrichment class for the younger students, prepared two events for Jake to conduct. The largest part of the program was to have Jake enter Matthew's class and sit with the students. All of the students had ukuleles and sat around Jake while he played a few songs and spoke about music technique. To wrap up the class, the kids busted out their ukuleles and played a tune with Jake. The workshop was to be an hour, however, the hour went by exceedingly fast and the kids had so much fun they missed the Q&A session.
For the second part of the visit, Jake played for the whole middle school in their school’s cafeteria. The school was so appreciative of Jake that he was greeted with Lei's and gift baskets at the door. They placed Jake in what looked like an ancient grandma-style rocking chair and he jammed out as the whole middle school listened in admiration. Of course, Jake took some requests and answered any questions during the performance. Every student was so hyped and displayed their enjoyment with a roaring cheer song after song. Since Jake had not been to Moloka`i in a while, the Moloka`i press was even there to cover this event. Afterwards, Jake ended the visit by meeting taking with the other faculty and staff. Again, thank you Matthew for the coordination of these events.