Hi, all! Just thought I'd chime in here. I'm Glen Nelson, an elementary school music teacher from CT. I have worked with Share-A-Voice, particularly Mike Shirra, for 5 years now. The first time we worked together was after 9/11, and we did a CD fundraiser for our school of peace and patriotic songs. Not only did we sell 800 copies, but that year the Connecticut Association of Schools named us "Elementary School of the Year" here in CT. Since then we have made a Christmas CD, a CD of teachers favorite songs, an original CD, and now a CD of the student's favorite songs. This year marks the 100th song our school has recorded, and I am happy to report that after 5 years, Mike has helped sell 2,500 CDs in our town and we have raised $25,000! Thanks Mike for a great 5 years of making music and working together and I hope all the best for you and for Share-A-Voice!!!
I showed my sister our project and they decided last minute to try it in Uxbridge MA. They are 180 students and their first wave of orders is 401. They are Our Lady of the Valley. My sister told me that she was afraid of what the older kids might sound like, but after Mike got done coaching them, they really stepped up to the call. He told them he works with some of the best childrens choirs in the country and has learned a few tricks along the way. It definatly worked. The 7th and 8th graders put the headphones on and once they heard it, they couldn't believe it was them. After they recorded the sales doubled after they heard it.
My sister had a little resistance getting this to be initially accepted at the meeting since a school a few miles away tried it with another company and it was not very professionally done. I think it was a parent or something. If you try doing this project with your school equipment or a parent, be prepared to have your project tank.
We have our first wave of orders in and we are already at 400 sales. Our school only has 160 families and around 210 kids. We did this last year but the kids didn't sing holiday songs. Last year we hit around 270. We were not sure what sales would be like singing again only one year later. We are going to peddle these to our parish. We hope to top out over 600. You might want to check out our project page. email the company who did this and maybe they can send you a copy.
