Roxanne,

 

It has been a dream of mine since childhood, over 5 decades ago, to have a centrally located place where student musicians could come play and perform the Blues in a nurturing, organized, professional environment. Fast-forwarding to adulthood, the dream has come to fruition via Blues Camp.

 

I’d like to invite you to join our team and establish a formal strategic partnership between your organization and mine (Blues Camp International, and Blues Kids Foundation — a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization  registered with the IRS).

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With you as a strategic partner, we can continue to:

• promote and champion Diversity and Equitable Inclusion through music.

• establish free Blues Camps and workshops for children and educators.

• create new STEAM opportunities in underserved communities.

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Blues Camp Brochure (Click to download)

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​"The non-profit Blues Kids Foundation holds annual Fernando Jones Blues summer camps, 

where students as young as eight or nine years old hone their chops."

Rolling Stone Magazine (Click for article)

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"[Fernando] you are one in a million trying to get to the bottom of the barrel of the Blues.”

Buddy Guy (Click to see photo of the two)

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"Unlike Jazz camps, camps that focus on the Blues are a rarity.

[Fernando] Jones’ Blues Camps have become an annual rite of Summer."

Downbeat (Click for article)

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"Few Chicago Blues musicians have done more to nurture

the next generation of talent than guitarist Fernando Jones."

Chicago Tribune (Click for article)​​​

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• • •

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The Blues Kids Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization. We were established to preserve, perform and promote the Blues among America's youth, parents and educators under the tutelage of highly qualified instructors. Our focus is on education, literacy, Social Emotional Learning and Music as a Second Language.

 

Read our scholarly essay in the Journal of Popular Music.(Click)

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Blues Camp International is supported and brought to you in part by:  Columbia College Chicago, Mary Barnes Donnelley Family Foundation, Lefort-Martin Fund, Tom Liebman, DCASE, Venue OverDrive, Knotty Luxe Arts Foundation, PERT Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Chicago Microbusiness Recovery Grant Program, Chicago Federation of Musicians (Local 10-208), Rotary Club of Chicago, Facebook / Network for Good, Navy Pier Chicago, D’Addario Foundation, The Chicago (IL) Metro Chapters of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated, M.U.S.T Foundation, Bobbie’s Screen Printing, Bikes & Music, and The Lassandrello Family.

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Blues Kids Foundation Friends include but are not limited to: WGN TV, NBC5 Chicago, One Brick Foundation, Thinking Computers, Downbeat Magazine, the Society Incorporated, The Chicago Chapter for the Arts, Reggie’s Rock Club, Edward G. Irvin Foundation, Music Box Foundation, Delta Arts Center (NC), A Sound Education, Lois and Line Cornell.

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Blues Camp Education Partners include but are not limited to: Columbia College Chicago, B.B. King Museum and Interpretive Center (MS), Winston-Salem State University (NC), Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center, KOP Mentoring Network (FL), Tokyo School of Music and Dance (Japan), Chicago Public Schools (Hendricks, Esmond, Powell Paideia Academy, Pershing and Owen Schools), and ETA Creative Arts Foundation.