LAS VEGAS, Sept. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Toyota,
VH1 Save The Music Foundation and Life is Beautiful Music
& Art Festival, joined by GRAMMY Award-winning rock band
and Las Vegas natives Imagine
Dragons, presented three Las
Vegas area schools with a $40,000 music education grant that will provide
music instruments to enhance each school's music programs and
expand student participation.
![Toyota, VH1 Save The Music Foundation and Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival, joined by GRAMMY Award-winning rock band and Las Vegas natives Imagine Dragons, presented three Las Vegas area schools with a $40,000 music education grant that will provide music instruments to enhance each school’s music programs and expand student participation. Toyota, VH1 Save The Music Foundation and Life is Beautiful Music & Art Festival, joined by GRAMMY Award-winning rock band and Las Vegas natives Imagine Dragons, presented three Las Vegas area schools with a $40,000 music education grant that will provide music instruments to enhance each school’s music programs and expand student participation.](https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/560063/Toyota_Motor_North_America___Imagine_Dragons.jpg)
At a spirited school-wide assembly held at Ed W. Clark High
School on Thursday, September 21,
Tyler McBride, Engagement Marketing
Manager at Toyota Motor North America, and Henry Donahue, Executive Director at VH1 Save
The Music Foundation, awarded the grant to three deserving schools
– Ed W. Clark High School, Dell H. Robison
Middle School and Cashman Middle
School. Ed W. Clark High School Principal, Jillyn Pendleton, Clark County School District Superintendent,
Pat Skorkowsky, and Life is
Beautiful CEO, Justin Weniger, were
also in attendance and spoke to the importance of music education
in Las Vegas' public schools.
Following executive remarks a group of talented orchestra and band
students from Ed W. Clark High School performed an impressive
rendition of Imagine Dragons' chart-topping hit "Radioactive." As
the student performance ended the curtains were drawn and the
GRAMMY Award-winning rock band surprised students with a rousing
performance of some of their popular songs, including "Believer,"
"It's Time," "Demons," "Whatever it Takes," and
"Radioactive," while students and teachers danced and sang
along.
Imagine Dragons' lead vocalist, Dan
Reynolds, took a moment during the set to say a few
inspiring words directly to the students, saying, "One thing we can
focus on that's an incredible positive thing is what you guys are
doing – your voices and actions are resonating around the world –
the youth are changing the world right now. Whether you know it or
not you are, with your sense of acceptance, love and kindness.
Thank you for making a greater, more healthy environment for people
who are unique that feel on the outside. You guys are pretty
incredible and keep changing the world."
The $40,000 donation to VH1 Save
The Music was divvied up to fulfill two Encore Grants which
includes $15,000 each of supplemental
wind and stringed instruments, and one Keys + Kids Grant which
includes $10,000 worth of hybrid
piano and keyboards. The grants strengthen each designated
Las Vegas school's music education
programs with expanded resources to supply students with equal
opportunity to learn through the arts. The assembly was in
partnership with this weekend's Life is Beautiful Music & Art
Festival, a three-day event where music, art and ideas merge
in the heart of Downtown Las Vegas.
The grant was achieved through an interactive festival
activation and social media campaign implemented at music festivals
nationwide, including Stagecoach, Country 500, Firefly Music
Festival, Ruido Fest, Lollapalooza, and the upcoming Life is
Beautiful and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience. The activation
engages with festivalgoers and artists through an Instagram mosaic
mural that promotes the #ToyotaGiving campaign in support music
education. Festivalgoers and participating artists are invited to
write the answer to the question "what does music mean to you?" on
a dry erase board and share it on social media with the
#ToyotaGiving. The pictures are added to a larger mosaic art piece
at each festival. Popular artists including Tegan and Sara,
Dillon Francis, The Zombies, Lil
Yachty, Capital Cities and more have participated in the activation
and shared what music means to them. The campaign will conclude
following Voodoo Music + Arts Experience on October 27th –
29th.
Over the past three years, the #ToyotaGiving campaign has
collectively donated $110,000 to VH1
Save The Music Foundation. Prior to Las
Vegas, the grants were awarded to four schools in the
New Orleans and Chicago areas providing each school with
musical instruments and increasing the number of music teachers on
staff to support sustainable music education programs. As a result
of the Toyota grants, over 3,370 students have been able to
experience the power of making music.
"At Toyota, we take our commitment to improve education very
seriously. As a result, we continue to evolve our partnership with
VH1 Save The Music in an effort to create awareness of and support
their mission to restore music education programs in schools
nationwide," said Steve Appelbaum,
national engagement marketing manager, Toyota Motor North America.
"Toyota's continued commitment to VH1 Save The Music has helped
us expand our support to deserving school districts and bring music
education to students who need it most," said Henry Donahue, executive director of VH1 Save
The Music Foundation. "We can't thank Toyota enough for their
contribution to our mission of ensuring that music is a part of
every child's life."
About VH1 Save The Music Foundation
The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a nonprofit organization
dedicated to restoring instrumental music education programs in
America's public schools, and raising awareness about the
importance of music as part of each child's complete education.
Founded in 1997, VH1 Save The Music was the first organization in
existence dedicated to restoring music programs in America's
schools. In the foundation's 20 years, more than $53 million worth of new musical instruments has
been donated over 2,000 public schools in 257 school districts
around the country to date -- impacting the lives of millions of
public school students. Get involved at
www.vh1savethemusic.org and join the conversation on Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat @vh1savethemusic using the hashtag
#SaveTheMusic.
About Toyota
Toyota (NYSE:TM) has been a part of the cultural fabric in the U.S.
and North America for 60 years,
and is committed to advancing sustainable, next-generation mobility
through our Toyota and Lexus brands. During that time, Toyota
has created a tremendous value chain as our teams have contributed
to world-class design, engineering, and assembly of more than 33
million cars and trucks in North
America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the
U.S.) and directly employ more than 46,000 people (more than 36,000
in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (nearly
1,500 in the U.S.) sold almost 2.7 million cars and trucks (2.45
million in the U.S.) in 2016 – and about 85 percent of all Toyota
vehicles sold over the past 15 years are still on the road
today.
Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and
governmental organizations to address our society's most pressing
mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive
know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to
assist more people move more places. For more information about
Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.
Media Contacts
Taylor Nunez | ANTHEMIC Agency |
541-221-3627 | taylor@anthemicagency.com
Kimberly Harms | Saatchi for Toyota
| 702-234-9571 | Kimberly.harms@saatchi.com
Zachary Reed | Toyota USA | 214-316-1128 |
Zachary.reed@toyota.com
View original content with
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/toyota-and-vh1-save-the-music-foundations-national-music-education-program-culminates-with-grant-presentation-featuring-a-performance-by-imagine-dragons-300524366.html
SOURCE Toyota Motor North America