This past weekend I had the opportunity to help teach young girls from 12-17 how to play an instrument and rock out in a band at Ottawa Rock Camp for Girls. This organization was started in Ottawa in 2006 and is now in its 7th year. It is completely donation/sponsored and volunteer based, and we were lucky enough to have Victoire as one of our sponsors! Perhaps you picked up one of the Rock Camp t-shirts we have for sale at the shops! 

This is my third year teaching since it started, and it has been by far one of the most fun weekends I've ever had. These girls were so driven and excited to learn a new instrument, it was truly inspiring. Many of the girls met for the first time on Friday night and became instant best friends. Some of them were really shy, but managed to wail on the drums as hard as they could. They danced, they jammed, they shredded, they sang and of course screamed and shouted!

They learned their instrument on Saturday and then formed their bands. Sunday was spent learning a song with their band to perform that evening. It's pretty darn impressive that these girls not only learned an instrument in one day, but managed to learn an entire song the next! Sunday was spent jamming with their bands to be ready for their debut on stage. They played a showcase last night at 7pm, in Mac Hall at the Bronson Centre. We were lucky to have the Bronson Centre as our venue because we needed as much space as we could - the place was totally packed!

Here are some pictures from the weekend and showcase, courtesy of Janine, who helped teach bass and did all of the graphic design work for the camp, as well as one of our guitar teachers' Sarah Grant and a father of one student, Frank Krul, took amazing photographs and put together a great photo album of the showcase. You can check out more of Frank Krul's pictures here, and check out the Girls Rock Camp Facebook page for the rest of the weekend pics!

One band killing it during the dress rehearsal for the big night! Image taken from the facebook page.

Rocking out in the guitar room. Image courtesy of the rock camp facebook page.

Image courtesy of Frank Krul.

Image courtesy of Frank Krul.

Showcase. Image courtesy of Frank Krul.

All of the girls smiling and screaming!
November 04, 2013 — Ainslie Lahey (noreply@blogger.com)