'My heart is happy': Kids get free music lessons from Salvation Army in Asbury Park
ASBURY PARK - Cesar Gonzalez is 12 years old, lives in Asbury Park with his immigrant family, and can belt out a rich “middle C” on his coronet.
As proof, he holds the note for a visitor to the Salvation Army building in Asbury Park.
“It’s pretty fun,” he said. “I make a decent sound with it.”
Cesar is partaking in the Salvation Army’s free music lessons for youths. The program, launched last spring, is taking off with the help of Dillon Music, a store in Woodbridge whose owners live in Asbury Park. Dillon Music music provides guitars, ukuleles and coronets, and co-owner Lynn Dillon offers weekly instruction along with Josh Lyle, who co-runs the Salvation Army’s Asbury Park branch.
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“I have some kids who were very quiet, barely gave me eye contact at first,” Lynn Dillon said. “Now this little girl (who plays coronet) comes up and hugs me each week because she is so happy to see me. I’m trying to help these kids not just musically, but in general.”
The hourlong instructional sessions take place at 5 p.m. Thursdays. Dinner is served first. The are 25 to 30 attendees on a typical week, and they’re broken into three groups — guitars/ukuleles, brass and a dance class. The sessions are open to kids of any age through high school.
“We really want to meet the needs of our neighbors,” Lyle said. “We were talking with some kids who had been coming to our other programs asking them what they want to do and a lot of them said, ‘We’d really like to learn to play an instrument.’”
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That was music to the ears of Lyle, who plays coronet in the Salvation Army’s renowned New York staff band.
“You talk to parents, they can’t afford to send their kids to get private lessons,” he said. “I’m a musician. I know the impact it’s had on my life. I passed it down to my own kids. We’re happy to be able to offer that to our families.”
The music lessons are an outgrowth of an afterschool “Learning Zone” program the Asbury Park branch initiated last year to help local kids ages 6 to 12 with their schoolwork.
“We noticed a lot of the kids coming to our other programs were really struggling in school,” Lyle explained. “We had one family, the mother can talk to her kids (in Spanish), but she can’t talk to their teachers (in English). We asked the kids if they were going to need help with their homework. They opened their Chromebooks, and they had no idea how to even log in. This was February or March, and they hadn’t done any homework for the whole year. We said, ‘We have to do something to help these families.’”
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Tuition for the Learning Zone is $100 per week, but government vouchers are available to help cover the cost. The music and dance lessons, while separate from the Learning Zone and free of cost, are infused by the same spirit — lending a hand to local kids, many of whom are in immigrant families, some of whom speak limited English.
“I don’t know who enjoys Thursday nights more, the kids or me,” Lynn Dillon said. “My heart is happy, helping them.”
Dillon taught elementary school band for 30 years. She’s retired from that now, but wanted to give back.
“Lynn doesn’t speak any Spanish at all, but music is its own language,” Lyle said. “It’s pretty great.”
Salvation Army Asbury Park’s free music and dance lessons for kids will resume in January, after the holidays. Volunteers are being sought to teach dance and ukulele. To register a child or volunteer, call (732) 775-8698 or email njasburpark@use.salvationarmy.org.
Jerry Carino is community columnist for the Asbury Park Press, focusing on the Jersey Shore’s interesting people, inspiring stories and pressing issues. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Salvation Army in NJ offers free music lessons for kids
