Country Music Stars Team-up to Help Developmentally Disabled

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The 2nd Annual ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp – a week-long residential program open to campers nationwide with developmental disabilities, talented in music – will start start on Monday, June 27, with a number of stars lining up to help.

Superstars volunteering time to participate include Gary Allan, Little Big Town, Darius Rucker, Carrie Underwood and Wynonna, along with hit songwriters Odie Blackmon and Brett James, and renowned producer Mark Bright.

The Camp has a dual purpose of studying Williams syndrome and other developmental disabilities and providing music enrichment through performance and education. ACM Lifting Lives funds the costs of the Camp, enabling the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities to advance its mission of improving the lives of individuals with developmental disabilities and their families through research, training and service.

Campers will participate in a songwriting workshop and recording session, culminating in a live performance at the Grand Ole Opry. At the Opry, campers will reprise their 2011 ACM Awards hit Music from the Heart and share an original song they will write at this year’s camp. Throughout the week, campers will also gain the invaluable experience of visits from top-tier country music veterans. Prior camps have featured artist visits from Kix Brooks, Julianne Hough, Eddie Montgomery, LeAnn Rimes and more.

Developing Skills to the Sound of Music

DANBURY, Conn. -- "Good morning, good morning, good morning to you. Music's beginning, there's so much to do."
Danbury resident Barbara Baker always begins her special education preschool classes singing this song, while strumming it on her guitar. Some of her students sing along, while others smile, clap, or jump up and down.
For 12 years, Baker has been a music therapist in the Danbury public schools. She uses music to help improve students' language, cognitive, motor, behavioral and social abilities.

Music as Medicine for Child on Spectrum

WESTPORT, Conn. -- Ethan Walmark's dad sang The Beatles' "I Will" to his child every night. It's the gentle type of song that a proud father would sing to his son, with lyrics like, "Love you forever and forever/Love you with all my heart."
When Ethan was four, he played the song by ear. At five years old, he knows The Doors, the tunes from Glee and just about anything else he hears. For Ethan, who has autism, music is medicine, therapy and a rare gift.