AHA – Ted Mills

Teens wow the crowd with rock and soul at AHA! event

May 10, 2015July 20, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Students perform at Saturday's AHA! event at Deckers Corporate Rotunda in Goleta. HELENA DAY BREESE/NEWS-PRESS — Students perform at Saturday’s AHA! event at Deckers Corporate Rotunda in Goleta.
HELENA DAY BREESE/NEWS-PRESS

Parents, friends and donors gathered at the Deckers Goleta headquarters Saturday night for an empowering evening of rock music where teens, some of whom had never sung in front of an audience before, performed hits from classic rhythm and blues to the latest by Katy Perry.

The evening, the 12th annual “Sing It Out!” from AHA!, is the culmination of workshops meant to give confidence to kids who may come from a variety of backgrounds that might include economic hardship, deaths in the family, or suffer from bullying, or just feel crushingly shy.

Area teens perform at AHA! fundraiser

May 19, 2014September 28, 2014 tedmills Leave a comment

Using singing to conquer fear and overcome painful pasts, 14 area teenagers took the stage one by one to sing in an event organized by AHA!, a program that fosters social and emotional intelligence in adolescents.

“This is not American Idol or a contest. It’s the anti contest,” said AHA co-founder Jennifer Freed, just before an evening of performance on Sunday evening. “This is about having the courage to stand in front of you and sing out for joy and rapture and possibility.”

Around 350 people gathered at the large rotunda at Deckers’ Goleta headquarters in the early evening to watch 14 teenagers sing pop and rock hits, all with professional band backing them up.

It was the culmination of 12 weeks of rehearsals and training to take youths and help them confront their fears – lack of confidence, self-image, rejection – put it aside, and just “Sing It Out,” as the event was called.