On this monthly radio program, The Children’s Foundation President and CEO Larry Burns talks to community, government and business leaders about issues related to children’s health and wellness.
Guests for this discussion were Robert Stennett, CEO, Ben Hogan Foundation; Alexander Zonjic, Professional Jazz Flutist; and Rick Sperling, CEO, Sperling Arts Strategies.
The hour-long show typically airs at 7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month on WJR 760AM. Here’s a summary of the show that aired December 22, 2020; listen to the entire episode, and archived episodes, at yourchildrensfoundation.org/caring-for-kids.
Larry Burns: The Ben Hogan Foundation is synonymous with golf and also perseverance and integrity. Tell us about your Foundation.
Robert Stennett: The Ben Hogan Foundation was established in 2007 by Lisa Scott, Mr. Hogan’s great niece. We have a pretty simple mission: to honor the legacy and celebrate the life of Ben Hogan. Youth development, education and honoring the military are the three core components of what we do. We have an annual golf tournament that about 200 members of the military participate in.
Burns: I had the opportunity to see the Ben Hogan Learning Center at the First Tee of Fort Worth. There's another one under construction. The Children's Foundation is now operating the First Tee–Greater Detroit. Tell us about your involvement with First Tee.
Stennett: Youth development is one of our core tenets and we were impressed with First Tee. Not only was it teaching young people the game of golf, which Mr. Hogan would appreciate, but more importantly, it was teaching the young people about character. First Tee has nine core values, including honesty and integrity, in their curriculum that they work to instill in the young people.
We decided that we wanted to help them build a facility in Mr. Hogan's name. In 2011, we created the Ben Hogan Learning Center and opened it in Fort Worth. Early in the program First Tee of Fort Worth had about 400 kids participate—last year they had 40,000. The First Tee of Fort Worth has an amazingly high retention rate, with 87 percent of the kids returning year after year.
Burns: What's in store for the Ben Hogan Foundation in 2021?
Stennett: In the spring, we'll have the ribbon cutting for the second Ben Hogan Learning Center. We'll award scholarships in honor of Mr. Hogan and hold a military appreciation event.
In the summer, I plan to come to Detroit to help The Children’s Foundation with a golf tournament to raise funds for First Tee–Greater Detroit.
Mr. Hogan won the 1951 U.S. Open at Birmingham’s Oakland Hills. They made one of the toughest, if not the toughest, tests of golf ever created. Oakland Hills was the one of the first times the United States Golf Association tried to make a golf course that players couldn't break par on. In the whole 1951 tournament there were only two subpar rounds and one of those was on the last day, when Mr. Hogan shot a 67. He declared, “I'm glad I brought this course—this monster—to its knees.” Mr. Hogan would tell you that he shot one of the greatest rounds of golf at his life there at Oakland Hills.
We want to bring that spirit to the modern day with our partnership with The Children’s Foundation in support of First Tee–Greater Detroit, to help them build a Learning Center in Detroit. The tournament is scheduled for August 9, 2021 at the Detroit Golf Club. The event includes an opportunity to hit with one of Mr. Hogan’s drivers. We hope to raise a lot of money for the First Tee–Greater Detroit.
Larry Burns: Due to the coronavirus, you were able to finish Playing It Forward, your first album in more than 10 years. This is your thirteenth album and it was released in October. Tell us about your 2020.
Alexander Zonjic: Certainly no one expected the whole reality we're living in right now. It started out with a lot of uncertainty for all of us artists. There was confusion: Should we release these records? Should we not? Will concerts come back? Will we be able to tour and support our projects? Being able to work on a project like Playing It Forward with all of my friends was really a dream come true for me. My first record came out 42 years ago but I'm going to always remember the release of this record because it was totally unique compared to all the other records.
Burns: Who else is on it?
Zonjic: Jeff Lorber, the legendary keyboard player, was the real inspiration: he challenged me musically. James Lloyd produced the first single and it happened to be a hit. We've got our 13-year-old genius on piano, Justin Lee Schultz, who is pure joy when he performs. Real legends are on this record, including Paul Jackson Jr., Michael Thompson, Gary Novak, and legendary guitarist Chuck Lobe, with probably some of the last tracks he ever recorded. The album was a great collaboration and I couldn't be more thrilled with the results.
Burns: You've reinvented working with nonprofits during this time. Tell us about that.
Zonjic: A lot of us questioned this virtual stuff early on. We didn't really know how to embrace it. It was a joy for us to be able to play The Children’s Foundation’s Derby for Kids party in September. That was one of maybe three or four things we did all summer. Now we're continuing in that same spirit with our newfound expertise and looking forward to doing an ambitious virtual event this January for Coalition On Temporary Shelter (COTS). They normally do an annual fundraising event at the Gem Theater called Soup City. For 2021 they've turned it into a virtual event to raise funds and awareness around issues surrounding family homelessness, while also making a positive impact on homelessness in Detroit.
Burns: I need to thank you for allowing Caring For Kids to use your single, “Motor City Sway” as our theme song.
Zonjic: Larry, you're welcome to any songs I have. We had a great experience filming the video for that single all around Detroit. It’s very Detroit-centric. We held a contest so fans could show us their own spin on dancing the Detroit sway in short video submissions. We've had dance troupes submit videos and we had one young lady dancing in front of a garage all by herself outside. It's been so cool. We just wanted to offer a little bit of fun for individuals and whole families, especially during these challenging times.
Larry Burns: Tell us about your new initiative addressing the arts in the COVID-19 environment.
Rick Sperling: I'm a full-time consultant for Detroit Public Schools. We had great plans for 2020, and most of them never happened because of the pandemic. I had a plan that I wanted to implement, which was to do private lessons for music students, because we saw that as the area of greatest inequity.
When the pandemic hit, we decided that we needed to focus on this concept of private lessons, but expand it from instrumental music to include vocal music, dance, theater, visual arts and multimedia. Any kind of education done completely online is difficult so we created small cohort groups—if you could work with five students or fewer at a time and give them individualized attention, then you can really have a great impact. We also gave them mentors to work with the entire year.
We have 13 arts organizations, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, College for Creative Studies and Mosaic Youth Theatre, providing mentors. Our students are benefiting from a connection to caring adults who are challenging them to do their best.
We call the program RAMP-UP, which stands for Rigorous Art Mentorship Programs, Under Pandemic.
Burns: You've also partnered with The Children's Foundation on this new initiative.
Sperling: It's been a thrill to work with you and your staff on developing DEYA, or Detroit Excellence in Youth Art.
Everyone appreciates the impact of the arts on young people, including what it does for their health and well-being. However, youth arts initiatives are always on the margins when it comes to funding. The Children's Foundation and I are developing a fund and initiatives that focus exclusively on youth arts in Detroit. The Children’s Foundation has already made several grants to our DEYA mentors.
Burns: The Children's Foundation is about keeping children and young adults on the right path to have successful, rewarding lives. The arts can put them on that path.
Sperling: There's something about the arts that really sets young people on that path. In my 27 years at Mosaic Youth Theatre, more than 95 percent of the kids who performed with us went to college and a vast majority of those young people graduated from college. Many have gone on to earn PhDs and other advanced degrees.
Burns: What’s on your agenda for 2021?
Sperling: First is finishing up fundraising for RAMP-UP. I'm proud to say that we have raised over 85 percent of the entire $460,000 program budget. We want these young people to have mentors all the way to the end of the school year.
Once the pandemic is over, we want to create as many opportunities for Detroit young people to have these experiences, so RAMP-UP may continue.
We also want to be the fund that arts organizations know is going to help them to survive and continue to serve young people. We need to support the people who are doing fantastic work with young people.
To learn more and support DEYA, you can visit yourchildrensfoundation.org/fundraising-initiatives/DEYA.
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