Flying Horse Farms is thrilled to have counted the Central Ohio Symphony a summer partner in offering children with serious illnesses the joyful experience of camp plus life skills to carry beyond camp’s gates. Through therapeutic drumming circles at every summer residential camp session, the symphony gave campers the opportunity to makes music while learning about teamwork, trust and flexibility.
“What we do at Flying Horse Farms is a more recreational approach to our therapeutic program,” said Central Ohio Symphony Executive Director Warren Hyer. “Our mission is to engage the community through music. We’re passionate about finding unique ways to make connections throughout the community.”
The Central Ohio Symphony drumming program allows musicians to take drums into the community and invites people to join in making music. As with all camp programming, the drum circles offered campers joyful moments while arming them with life tools.
“The drum program is not only fun for campers, but it also gives them things to think about, like how to interact with their family and community, how to depend on others and to learn how to let others depend on them,” Hyer said. “And it also gives them, in a fun way, life skills that help them learn to be flexible in difficult situations.”
One drumming circle exercise performed at camp was the shaker pass. Campers passed shakers from person to person, going faster or slower upon instruction, and eventually doing it with their eyes closed. In another exercise, campers were asked to play their experiences at camp and to define their emotions through sound.
The Central Ohio Symphony has received training through Remo HealthRHYTHMS on using drumming as a therapeutic program for people of all ages.
“We absolutely loved being at Flying Horse Farms,” Hyer said.
Flying Horse Farms CEO Mimi Dane was equally as excited about the partnership.
“The drum circles were absolutely awesome,” Dane said. “The Central Ohio Symphony is among many community partners who help make the camp experience so rich for our kids. And we are grateful to include them in our camp family.”
The Central Ohio Symphony drummers will also perform at camp’s Campfire gala at Cleveland’s Severance Hall on Sept. 17.
For more on the Central Ohio Symphony, visit http://centralohiosymphony.org. For more on Remo HealthRHYTHMS, visit http://remo.com.
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Flying Horse Farms provides magical, transformative camp experiences for children with serious illnesses and their families—free of charge. Located on 200 acres in Mt. Gilead, Ohio, the camp hosts hundreds of children and families each year. The children who attend camp have illnesses including cancer, heart conditions, rheumatoid arthritis, blood disorders, severe asthma, gastrointestinal disorders, kidney conditions and craniofacial anomalies.
