At the Mayor-making, the Mayor announces their Mayoral charities for the year. This year’s charity nominated by Cllr Andrew Skinner is: –
Abingdon Music Centre
Abingdon Music Centre was founded 50 years ago, providing classes for babies and pre-school children. Since then, it has expanded greatly to fulfil its charitable objective of “music for everyone”. Music has been found to improve mental health, boost brain development, aid memory and concentration and reduce social isolation. Anyone should have a chance to reap these benefits, regardless of their age or ability.
For children they offer fun pre-school sessions, a guitar club and work with Music Flood partners to give primary school pupils the chance to play in an orchestra. Adults can join their community orchestra, guitar groups, recorder group or one of their three choirs, including ACCord their community choir. They often perform at community events and fund-raising events for other charities and do outreach work in care homes giving residents stimulation and fun.
Their office is based at Larkmead school but they hire venues across Abingdon for classes. They try to keep class fees as low as possible and reduce them for those who are on benefits etc. but also rely on donations and grants to support their work. “We are very grateful and excited that the Mayor has chosen us as his charity for the coming year and look forward to discussing how we might use the money to develop further”.
