Girls Who Rock Club at East Somerville School Wins Grant

UPDATED AT 1:29 p.m. 

One group of girls over at the  definitely rocks. They're called Girls Who Rock and they are members of an afterschool music club. 

In fact, they rock so much that Chick Singers Night Boston recently awarded the afterschool club a grant for $1,000. 

"We were really lucky to get a grant from Chick Singers Night Boston, which we got with help from our grant writer Gretchen Kinder," said Charlotte Huffman, the school's art teacher and founder of the club. 

The money will be used to buy instruments for the girls to use when they form bands next spring, she said. 

"We are going to be able to buy all of the musical instruments we need--electric guitars, basses, keyboards and drums--so that these girls and whoever else joins the club next semester [can use them]," Huffman explained. 

The Girls Who Rock Club is part of the afterschool program at the East Somerville Community School. Huffman said that she was inspired to start the club after seeing the school's talent show last year, and began writing the curriculum soon after. 

The club's mission is simple: "To teach girls how to give themselves permission to rock." The goal is for each girl to have created her own band by the end of the year, complete with self-written songs, musical accompaniment and merchandise. 

To achieve that goal, Huffman has created a plan that incorporates leadership skills, history, poetry, music (both vocal and instrumental) and band branding, to get the girls on their way to being rockin' musicians. 

Twice a week, they meet after school and start the session by listening to music by female musicians, learning a little bit about them and writing their impressions in a journal. From there, the club meeting takes a different course specific to the day's objectives. 

Huffman has also recruited the talents of friends and other staff members to work with the girls. 

Jacqueline Brown, a counselor educator, is in charge of band team skills. Brown uses games and activities to teach conflict resolution and to help the girls, who span three grade levels, get to know each other better. 

"They're really starting to mix together, which is kind of more of a beautiful thing to see, because that's what we want not only after school, but thats what we want during the day too," said Brown. 

Kate Lee is also on board for next term as the band coach. She'll be teaching the girls how to play the instruments, from fundamentals and notes to how the instruments work in a band. Kristy Desilets, an English teacher, will be helping the girls with writing lyrics. 

Be on the look-out for Girls Who Rock. At the end of the year, Huffman hopes to put on a concert to display the girls' talents.  "Hopefully it will be someplace awesome, and it will be someplace big!" she said. "But we are really excited to show off our stuff."

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