Music For The Soul

Hey guys I just wanted to update you with what is going on with the sandy clean up. We are glad to say that we have almost fully recovered all facilities with running water and power and cleanup is about 50% done. We are thankful for all the volunteers that have helped us during this difficult time. We also want to thank you for the donations you have given us as well.

Hurricane Sandy Damages

Last weekend about 80 volunteers showed up to help us clean up some of the mess left behind. There were also several trucking companies that offered to donate some of their trucks to help us haul some of the debris away. This actually was quite helpful as we have not really received a whole lot of help from the city due to the immense amount of damage that is currently going on. One of my good friends Jack Webster who runs a Bellevue locksmith company was very generous and donated $10,000 to the clean-up effort. Also special thanks to the volunteers from Plumbers Newcastle that helped homes to regain running water during this terrible crisis. Special thanks also to those who donated and installed the upvc cladding from Mariam Supply Co. We couldn’t have done it without you and want to thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
 
Also I wanted to especially thank Dave Ellerpsy and Tina McNally for helping to organize this grass roots effort to help us rebuild our community. People as far away as Florida came out to donate their time and energy to help rebuild. Thank you again all and we will keep you updated!

Hey guys I just wanted to let you know that besides our singing lessons online and ACLS online courses we are trying to expand our classes to cater to those who are visiting us from foreign countries. We are going to be launching several classes aimed at accent training for those who wish to learn American accent techniques in hope of finding employment in an already tough economy. These classes are still in preliminary discussions, however we expect them to be integrated into our curriculum hopefully in the near future.
 
The accent training courses are aimed at students who are interested in being more marketable to employers here in the American market. It should come at no surprise that employers here in the states prefer native speaking employees, and we want to make sure that our highly qualified foreign exchange students are not overlooked because of where they come from. Unfortunately this bias still exists today, and thus we believe that offering these supplemental courses will be beneficial for those foreign students who are looking to gain meaningful employment here in the states.
 
We expect the course to be an 8 week session hopefully beginning in January with the rest of the school year, and will most likely be held in the evening as it is supplemental in nature. As of right now due to the amount of interest generated we will more likely have two sections of this class. If demand does increase we will consider opening other sections for it, however as of now this is the intended plan.
 
If you are interested in learning more information about this course, please contact your counselor for the upcoming times and details. As of now this will be grouped together with the other extra curricular education courses, but we hope to expand this further to get everyone more ready for the ever evolving competitive job market that we are facing.

Hey guys just wanted to announce that there are being repairs that are going to be made to the Old Alameda building. As you know Hurricane Sandy has hit our town, and luckily for the most part many of our buildings have been spared. However minor repairs are needed to for all of the buildings, and we are starting to collect a fund for some of these repairs.
 

Hurricane Sandy Damage

 
At this time we are not really sure how we are going to go about all the repairs for each of the buildings that were effected. There are many of you that have voiced concerns about how much this is going to cost, and as of now we are getting numerous estimates and will report back when we have more concrete figures. Among the major repairs needed include restoration of the loft insulation padding, roof repairs, window repairs, replacement of lighting fixtures, and general cleaning. Also there has been major damage done to the underloor heating structure of the alameda building that we will be updating you guys on shortly. It is currently running on a 14 awg power cord generator which we hope should be temporary. There are a lot of people that are in need right now, and we are doing our best to repair things as well as take care of those who were effected.
 
If you know any roofing contractors or would like to donate some of your funds or services, please contact us at admin@pghsreddevilband.com and someone will get back to you with information about possible ways that you can assist. Thank you again and our prayers are with all the victims effected.

For those of you who are struggling to find work out there we want to let you know that there are many online resources that can get you back out there in the work force. As you all know education is something that we highly prioritize here, and it is important to get the word out to those who may be out of work or possibly wanting to get higher paying jobs.

For me I recently lost my job at a Manhattan air duct cleaning company and began training in computer animation and web design. When the economy tanked in 08, I lost my job at a call recording center and decided it was time for me to do something about it. I never thought in a million years that I would lose that job, but I decided to seek higher education because of it.

For those of you who have not considered vocational school or perhaps online degree programs, it is definitely something that you should consider if you are struggling to find work. If you have been hit by the tough times our country currently faces, it may be a good idea to begin training in another field. If you have maybe dropped out of college, you can either enroll in adult school so that you can get your GED and enroll in some other upper education programs. Having at least a high school degree is something that everyone needs, and in a growing competitive marketplace, you will probably want to seek a bachelor degree as well.

There are many job opportunities for those that graduate from a trade school. If you learn a highly specialized skill, there is a great chance that you will be able to find work in some niche market. Many of these jobs pay upward of 50-60k per year, so it definitely is something for you to consider. If you have been laid off from work or are having a hard time finding work, there are many additional free training resources that you can find online that can get you pointed in the right direction.

Remember that education is our future, so go do what you can to get a degree and become a more competitive applicant in today’s workforce. If money is an issue, please realize that many schools do have financial aid programs that can assist you with the cost of tuition as well. So do some research and get going, your new career could be just around the corner!

With the latest launch of our site we are open to ideas on how to get the word out. We will be exploring all avenues of promotion and hope that we can get the latest word out about our program and hopefully garner support and donations. The world wide web is full of billions of websites, so it will be a challenge to get this site visible and to get the word out about our cause.
 
We are planning to work with local companies here regarding the search engine optimization of our site. Google, Yahoo, and Bing are all valuable avenues that we can get word out about our site, so hopefully we can begin to funnel some traffic from there soon. So if you have any seo tips that you think will help our search engine rankings, please drop us a line with your thoughts!
 
Also we are planning on launching a Facebook fan page as well as start a Twitter account. The direction for these are still being debated, so once all the details are finalized we will update this blog with a post. I am not really familiar with Pinterest, and I know that is all the rage these days. However as far as social media is concerned, this is where we will be starting.
 
Also for any of you video editors out there, we are thinking of starting a YouTube channel as well. If there is anyone out there that can offer some video editing services or knows of any good software that is easy to use please let us know. We have some fun footage from the surveillance camera surrounding the school of all of last year’s events and gatherings that would make a great collage to start with.
 
The progress of this site is really that, a work in progress. We will try to update the site asap, but it will probably be a while before we have enough content to get organized. Also the upcoming schedule for us is very packed, but we will try our best to get this site going.
 
If anyone has other ideas on how to promote the site whether it be through search engines, social media, or any other form of traditional advertising please let us know. We are always looking for other ways to advertise, and we appreciate all the help we can get!

I am pleased to announce the new design of our site! We had to make major upgrades in the look and functionality of this website to be able to engage as many viewers on the web as possible. We hope that you like it and are very pleased with the work that was done for it.
 
Special thanks to the many who helped out with the design and layout of the new site. We are specially appreciative of the web designers who donated there service to make this site the best that it can be, and for our partners Richard and Sumati who graciously donated the best web hosting money can buy. Times are tough as it is, and every donation is appreciated. As you know we have been recently hit with a lot of economic hardship, and the fact that so many people came to donate to our cause is especially great. Thank you all again from the bottom of our hearts.
 
Moving forward we hope that this site becomes a hub for everything that is news worthy. The world wide web is full of the most amazing stories and hopefully we can share them here. The direction of this website has not been really set in stone yet, though we hope to have further clarity from the department heads in the upcoming weeks. We hope that you bear with us in the meantime as we try to sort out all the necessary kinks to get this community growing. There is a lot of man hours needed, and the upcoming finals schedules will keep us busy in the near future.
 
Anyway thank you all again for visiting our site and we hope that you become regular members. Should you need to contact us for any reason, please shoot us an email at admin@pghsreddevilband.com and someone will hopefully get back to you asap!

-Tina