April 15, 2014

Are You My Mother Or My Father? Yes. Yes You Are.

Dr. Barth conducting KIT performance at Bronson Park

What kind of parent are you? If you are a regular reader of this blog then you know that YOU are raising the children of our community. So, what kind of parent have you been lately? Involved? Are you financially or emotionally supportive? What example are you setting? Are you invested enough so that should someone sidle up to you in the grocery store and ask you what you ‘ve done lately for one of your 12,000+ kids or how one of them is doing, could you tell them?

Dr. Eric “Rick” Barth can. As a tot, he was moving 322 pound refrigerators. For the past several years, both during the school year and CIS Think Summer! program, Dr. Barth has gotten hundreds of his kids moving to the beat with Kalamazoo Kids in Tune, a program that is done in partnership with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Kalamazoo Public Schools and Communities In Schools of Kalamazoo. As Chair and Professor of the Math Department at Kalamazoo College, Dr. Barth is a busy guy and yet he makes the time to share his talents with our kids. We are grateful for his on-going commitment. His steadfast presence is making a difference.

We invite you to return next week and read what Dr. Barth, our next week’s guest blogger, has to say about moving refrigerators, Kids in Tune and why he invests in our children. In the meantime, check out the below clip of Rick conducting Boogie Woogie Blues.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-vbk6y9t8Q