Plug In With The Teens

By Bret Silverberg
Hometown Weekly Staff
Hometown Weekly, June 14, 2007

The kids of Sandra Rizkallah’s Plugged In Teen Bands program took the stage at Mass Bay Community College over the weekend to raise funds and awareness of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

The benefit concert involved 19 bands and a professional drum group, Bongo Love, from Zimbabwe. It took two concerts and seven total hours to fit them all in, but by the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and satisfied with the performance.

“The kids had fun,” said Rizkallah, Plugged In Teen Bands creator.

Plugged In Teen Bands is a two-fold non-profit organization. Rizkallah’s program places anyone who is interested in learning an instrument into a band all while teaching kids about the value of giving back to the community. Twice a year, the program holds benefit concerts in which the kids involved pick their favorite charity to donate money and time to.

According to a press release, “The goal of Plugged In is to have the charitable aspect of the program be so meaningful for the students that they will continue using their music to help others throughout their lives.”

far as the music goes, kids can choose between cover songs and originals, but are always encouraged to try to cultivate their very own sound, says Rizkallah.

“A majority [of students] do cover songs anywhere from rock to pop, bluesy things,” said Rizkallah. “We encourage originals but we don’t require them.”

The recent benefit was for the CJ Foundation for SIDS, a leading researcher of SIDS. Students got to hear a speaker form the foundation talk about SIDS and the cutting edge work that is being put into thwarting the mysterious syndrome.

The new session of Plugged In Teens will be staring up soon, if you are interested, email Sandra Rizkallah at srizkallah@comcast.net