UCLA Ukuleles

Heartstringz donates ukuleles to UCLA Health's Integrative Medicine Collaborative music therapy program. The ukuleles will be utilized for the adult palliative care program for usage onsite. Patients will also have the option of having a ukulele in their room at all times and can take a ukulele home for therapeutic playing well after discharge. We are honored to bring the joy and music to UCLA Health patients.

Wrapping Up 2023

Heartstringz had an amazing 2023 and we wrapped it up with a visit to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles on December 20th. UCLA’s Health Integrative Music Therapist, Jenna Bollard, joined us as we went room to room to sing holiday songs to the incredible children and families of Mattel. We also brought jingle bells and tambourines that the children were able to play along. Watching the children sing, dance, and clap along to our music was truly magical. It was an afternoon filled with pure holiday joy!

Thank you to our volunteers Carly Placencio, Colette Mendoza, Tom Rowland, and Julie Rowland for coming along to sing, jingle, and spread holiday cheer. We look forward to continuing our mission in the new year. 

Spreading Holiday Cheer in Brooklyn

On December 9th, we had privilege of preforming holiday songs at Concord Nursing home in Brooklyn, NY. We had the best time singing and chatting with the lovely residents at Concord. I was joined by two of my good friends and Hearstringz oldest volunteers - Sam Bloomfield and Sam Yu. It is extremely special for us to be singing again together especially during the holiday season.

In the featured picture, we have Concord resident John who joined us to sing "Baby It's Cold Outside." We also gave out jingle bells to some of the residents to play along with us. We had the best time!

-Natalie Rowland, Founder

Connecting with the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation

For the past couple of months we have formed an amazing connection with Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation. They advocate for families living in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and San Luis Obispo counties that have a child with cancer by providing financial, educational, and emotional support. One of Teddy Bear’s values is the commitment to cultivating an institutional culture based on health and wellness, which really inspired our partnership in healing through music. We have donated six ukuleles to three families with children battling cancer along with providing free, weekly Zoom ukulele lessons. They ukuleles range in colors depending on personal preference - blue, purple, pink, etc. It has been such an honor getting to meet and bond with the children and their siblings as well as teaching them the invaluable skill and joy of learning a musical instrument! It has been the brightest way to enter winter by learning holiday songs and theme songs from their favorite TV shows and movies (like Spongebob and Spiderman). Everyone at Teddy Bear has been so loving and generous with their time and loving attention to us at Hearstringz and the children they work with. Thank you Teddy Bear!

You can learn more about them at their website here: https://www.teddybearcancerfoundation.org/

The Heartringz Foundation Announce Campus Chapters

BIG news for the expansion of the Heartstringz Foundation! We will now have Heartstringz Chapters at various locations and schools. Since I started this organization in high school, all of my volunteers were my close friends from my school. Now most of us are in college and wanted to bring Heartstringz with us. Each volunteer will now be the director of their chapter, implementing the Hearstringz mission in their own unique way.

Our volunteers and their upcoming chapters: 
Patrick Rowland and Ashley Lee: Chaminade College Preparatory Chapter
Carly Placencio and Bryce Shirley: UC Davis Chapter
Aisha Gupta: UCLA Chapter
Sam Bloomfield: Scripps College Chapter
Erin Redor: LMU Chapter 
Natalie Rowland: William and Mary Chapter

In the future, we would like to have chapters all over in which anyone can start! Thank you all for your support.

Natalie