In keeping with June's theme of music month, Bookmans Phoenix and Bookmans Mesa celebrated guitars, music and more in their stores this weekend. Over at Mesa, we welcomed Carol Pacey from Chicks with Picks. Carol is a well-known artist from the Phoenix/Tempe area, and has been playing locally since 2008. Join us again at Bookmans Mesa on June 19 for more Chicks with Picks in the stores!

Carol from Chicks with Picks

At Bookmans Phoenix, we celebrated the Guitars in the Classroom gradution. Guitars in the Classroom (GITC) is a wonderful program adapted to make music easily accessible to both teachers and students. It begins with GITC instructors putting together class groups in centralized locations that teachers can attend over a six week period and in that time learn basic guitar skills that they can in turn implement into their own classrooms. This can be through signing story time, singing class rules or just though singing actual school lessons (numbers, colors, math, science, etc.). While some schools may be losing their music programs in this harsh economic climate, GITC ensures that even in the everyday classroom, students can be exposed to music and instruments.

This Saturday, we celebrated valley teachers who have completed the first six weeks of the Guitars in the Classroom program with their instructor, Gerry, for a music-filled Saturday morning graduation celebration! Teachers traveled with their guitars in hand and songs in the hearts to Bookmans Phoenix. They got to meet one another and share their experiences as to how GITC has changed their classrooms, students, and everyday lives.

One North Valley teacher, Melissa, teared up a little as she explained to the group that through GITC, her love of music and singing was reborn and now as she learns new chords and songs with Gerry, the Phoenix Director of GITC, she brings them not only back to her class, but home with her as well and teaches her second grade son what she’s learned. Together, they are experiencing the absolute power that music can have over one's life, all thanks to Guitars in the Classroom.

The other teachers who graduated had similar touching stories and all of them plan to continue their journey with Gerry and GITC, and hopefully get more teachers in their schools and districts involved. The teachers all tuned their guitars and graced Bookmans Phoenix with the songs they had been working so hard with their students, such as, “You are my Sunshine” and “Mama Don’t Allow”. It’s hard to believe that just six weeks ago these teachers were picking up a guitar for the first time!

Bookmans is very proud to sponsor such an important organization and we can’t wait until 2011 when the next round of Guitars in the Classroom graduates come strolling though our doors with a new love for guitars and a passion for music. Special thanks to Gerry and his wife for helping us put the graduation together and for all their hard work for GITC!