Kids Rock for Kids

By Milo Kielymiller 

“It was important to us that our children get involved in giving back to their community, both locally and globally. KRFK events enable performing kids - even at their young age -  to personally contribute to making a difference in the lives of kids in severe need. Learning that 1 in 10 students in  NYC public school classrooms are homeless has made their understanding and commitment stronger.” That’s from the About page of Kids Rock For Kids, a charity organization based on kids performing music to help other kids in need. You can check them out here: https://www.kidsrockforkids.com/  The show started in 2017, with just a few bands, without even being an official charity, though it was giving money to other charities as it does now. The show went on for 3 more years, still not an official charity, until it officially became one, in early 2020. The Chair of the KRFK board, David Miller, says that they had a lot of live shows planned over 2020, which of course, then got shut down. 

“There’s been a positive side, though, since now we have gone global, which is something that we might not have gone to if COVID had not hit.” That’s interesting. KRFK now runs global with more than 25 bands from all around the world, spanning from Indonesia to Kenya, to home here in NYC! They are having their first live show since the shutdown in April! I got my hands on an interview with Mr. Miller, and here it is:

Reporter, (Me): “What sparked you to create this organization originally?

Miller: “I wanted to enable my kids, who were involved in a band, to pursue their artistic desires and at the same time get them involved in the community.”

R: How did you choose which charities you wanted to donate the money raised to?

M:” Well, we thought it was important to give back to our local community, but also wanted the kids in the concert to feel connected to the larger world. We also wanted the charities to involve kids so that the performers in the concert would connect more to people their age.”

R: “How do you, as should I say, the “scout”, choose which bands or solo artists you will reach out to for KRFK.”

M: “For our live shows in NY, we held live auditions, but we also passed it around by word of mouth, through schools, music schools, and friends of kids and their parents. For our global live streams, though, I mostly find the bands on Instagram, though sometimes, through band competitions or newspaper articles. As we have become bigger, bands have started to reach out to us.”

R: “What's the next step for your organization?”

M: “At the moment we are very excited for live music returning to NY, so we are focusing on at least 2 big live shows in the spring and hopefully many more in the summer and fall (All outside, with social distancing precautions of course,) -- and globally, cause we love what has happened with making connections between all these kids around the world, we will continue to have live streams that feature bands from around the globe, while also enabling collaborations between single artists from around the world.”

Thank you, Mr. Miller!

In our tumultuous times I hope you find inspiration from Kids Rock For Kids out, and maybe catch one of their live shows -- or one of their past Livestream shows on their website -- because it’s all for a good cause!