Some Cleveland Middle School students are unwrapping today's social studies lesson. They've each been given a small box that contains a harmonica. Musician Jack Dialesandro explains how they work.
JACK DIALESANDRO: You take the harmonica, it has numbers on it. The numbers start with "one" - that's the low end.
DiAlesandro is a member of Roots of American Music - a non-profit group that works with Northeast Ohio schools to teach American cultural history through demonstrations of traditional music. These harmonicas were made possible by a grant from the Foundation for Community Betterment, a grassroots funding agency that helps individuals and groups that, in-turn, give back to the community. Co-chair Marc Milke says their grants are small, with the aim of having an immediate impact on recipients.
MARC MILKE: People that support us know where their money's going when they donate to us, versus a large organization where it goes into a big puddle of money and we're not sure where it goes.
In this case, the money is paying for harmonicas which each child will keep and use in a series of 60 music workshops. The idea is to teach the students lessons about their own cultural heritage - lessons that have a bigger impact when you put that history into their hands.
