By Alex Carrier
Published: March 13, 2008

In Greene County, Kid Pan Alley is, one could say, as close as you can get to a sure thing. 

Adults are sure children will shine creatively and that the young composers will find every single thing in their lives can be an idea for a song. 

The final measure of Kid Pan Alley’s success is the ending concert – another sure thing.  For the third year in a row, Greene County’s second-graders made the audience laugh, clap and love the original music created and performed by the kids.

A full house of almost 700 family, friends, program supporters and music lovers gathered at William Monroe High School to listen to the children perform their own creations with musical help from Kid Pan Alley founder Paul Reisler and local musician Terri Allard. 

Elizabeth Henderson, Ruckersville Elementary School music teacher, provided flute accompaniment. Carl Schmitt, a driving force behind getting Kid Pan Alley into Greene schools, even did double duty helping with the music display.

More than 200 students from the 10 second-grade classes at Greene Primary School and Ruckersville Elementary School participated in this year’s program.  Each class composed their songs during two 45-minute sessions with Reisler and Allard.  The young songwriter/performers then had a quick rehearsal on Friday before the evening’s live performance.

Kids surprised the veteran adults with unexpected accompaniment on maracas and a group dressed as Egyptians to sing their composition “I don’t care about the mummies in Egypt.” Children sang about their guitar, wanting peace and quiet (that was a revelation to the adults) and even a song about flirting.  There were poignant moments about love and all the tears in the ocean.

The audience joined in as Reisler performed a Kid Pan Alley standard (composed by another school), “I do love Virginia” which is being promoted by many involved in the program and beyond as a contender for Virginia’s new state song.

After the last note faded and the last happy child was wrapped in hugs and taken home, the one sure thing remaining was that the children had learned exactly what Paul Reisler envisioned when he started Kid Pan Alley.

“I want children to learn to be creators, not just consumers.”

We will all have to wait until next year to see what a new batch of Greene County children create.