Claire and Dan were a couple of a special kind. Claire is in the nonprofit world spent years in Africa educating citizens on sexual health and protection, Dan a school teacher in the Los Angeles school district…When they started planning their wedding, they wanted to give back both financially and by bringing awareness to projects they found uplifting. Enter The Harmony Project.
The Harmony Project is a non profit dedicated to music education for low-income youth. They spend Saturdays practicing and performing orchestra style in a group of 30 plus students and were thrilled to be a part of the day. Here’s a little more from the bride:
Dan is a teacher so we are always interested in investing in education, particularly the arts. We have followed El Sistema and Gustavo Dudamel’s work in bringing the program to inner city schools in the United States for a long time. We talked with Beth Helmstetter, our wedding planner, and she found the Harmony Project, a local non-profit that invests in children and LA communities through music.
Although the Harmony Project had not done anything like this before, they were open to the idea and allowed us to meet the kids and watch them practice. We loved how excited and devoted not only the kids were, but their parents, and the instructors. It was a no brainer for us to support such a beautiful intervention that has been shown to make a huge difference in children’s educational attainment.
The kids were so excited to perform and had practiced an impressive 8 song repertoire and it sounded beautiful the day of the wedding. It was important to us to not only have this memorable weekend surrounded by those we love, but also to be able to dedicate some of our time and resources to something we truly believe in as a couple.
Images by Steve Steinhardt
Have an idea of how to incorporate giving back into the wedding day? Or better yet, were you a socially conscious couple? Email your story to editor@thegoodbeginning.com
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