Inspirational Speaker Kristen Lloyd shares how she “found her brave” to fourth and fifth grade students at TECS-South.
NIBLEY— A medley of students’ voices singing “I found my brave. I found my brave,” could be heard down the halls of Thomas Edison Charter School South Campus during TECS-S with Music Teacher Katie McKay Tuesday morning.
TECS-S fourth and fifth grade students were visited by inspirational speaker, singer and song writer Kristen Lloyd as part of the Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous Education Outreach Program who shared a message of finding one’s brave or courage.
“I think that this message of find your brave really applies to everybody,” Lloyd said. “It’s not just for kids because we all struggle with anxiety, or maybe we have trauma from some event.”
During the visit, Lloyd shared four songs in which the students could participate by clapping, howling like coyotes and singing along.
She also shared with the students the stories and causes for the emotions that went into writing some of her songs.
Young children sometimes feel like they have no control about what is happening around them creating anxiety and says she hopes to help them realize they have control of their inner world.
“That feeling that even though things are going to happen to them, they can have control of their inner world and make it peaceful and safe,” Lloyd said. “I love giving that freedom to kids.”
Lloyd said she wanted to be able to help kids who are experiencing anxiety, stress and strain from school or pressure from home by providing a healthy outlet for their emotions and stress.
“A lot of times, it’s more than they can handle and they don’t know how to deal with it,” Lloyd said. “I love being able to provide tools for them to make them feel better just because I used to be one of those kids.”
Lloyd’s visit to TECS-South was a part of the Education Outreach Program of the CVCR, an annual program that sends a select group of musicians and cowboy poets to local schools.
According to CVCR Education Outreach Program Organizer Dawna Major this year’s program was a bit different because they were piloting a new scheduling website.
“Our CVCR Education Outreach Program began in 2012 traditionally held during the week before our three-day event featuring western musicians and cowboy poets, now held the second weekend in March 10-12th,” Major said. “This year we wanted to test a new scheduling website to see how it worked, and so we did these two early days in February this year.”
Students throughout Cache Valley had the opportunity to learn about western lifestyle, listen to Lloyd, learn how to play two to three songs with 900 harmonicas available to hand to students along with their own songbook.
The program is funded by a grant from the Sorenson Legacy Foundation which allows the number of students reached increase annually according to Major.
“Each year we have increased the number of students that we are able to reach until this last year we were able to reach over 9,000 students mostly in Cache Valley,” Major said. “We are very grateful for this grant that allows us to touch so many students.”