SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- Over the years, many schools have seen their music and art programs cut, with underprivileged students often losing out the most because they have few outside resources.
That’s one reason why a San Diego woman with a heart of gold set to out to be that resource.
As you head toward practice at Heartbeat Music & Performing Arts Academy, you’ll hear the rousing rhythms of the drumline. This is the passion project of founder and CEO Tyra Hawthorne -- to give underprivileged kids a chance at a unique musical journey.
“I named it Heartbeat at the time because I felt like we were living in a world where kids were dying, but not physically -- emotionally, mentally. They were just lost. So I just felt like if anything, I could kind of revive a lost culture with music and that's how it started,” says Tyra.
She calls out to the group, “Remember, if you mess up, keep going.”
Tyra should know. She was a proud member of the Grambling State Tiger Marching Band. Yet despite her experience and enthusiasm, keeping this academy going was not easy. She had to balance the need to charge a modest fee to keep the lights on with not wanting to turn away families who couldn't pay. She almost gave up, until her mom told her she had more to give.
“A lot of nights of crying and not understanding why I was doing it, but at the same time knowing that I needed to do it,” Tyra says, “In 2016, I made the decision to give up my apartment, my car and live in my academy for two years to try to keep the doors open.”
Now, nine years after it launched, Heartbeat is going strong. The drumline and the majorette dance team, for which Tyra’s daughter Timyra is the captain, are sought-after performers in shows and parades around the country and abroad. Despite all that, for Tyra this is about much more.
“You know, the same discipline that you need to learn your dance moves and to learn your instruments is the same discipline you need in the classroom. It's the same discipline that you're going to need when you go off to college.”
That kind of discipline is ingrained in Tyra after she served 12 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. Her team members have to maintain a 3.0 GPA, a 3.5 to travel. For student leader, Drum Major Nasir Tapper, it’s more than worth it.
“It's completely different than anything I could have thought of. It gave me a track to college. It's given me many, many opportunities that I would have never got if I wasn't in this.”
Others are taking notice. While Heartbeat supplies the musical equipment including the drums, the equipment is aging and now Tyra can replace it and more thanks to a $150,000 grant from the San Diego Foundation to advance this non-profit's work which has expanded to a preschool program that teaches little ones the basics through music.
When asked what all these kids mean to her, Tyra said, “I'm a firm believer that if a parent entrusts you with their child and you have them for years and you're giving them a skill set, it's your responsibility to make sure that skill set pays off for them.”
It's already paying off big. A former Heartbeat student who went to college on a band scholarship just became the first to graduate and with honors. Multiple students now in the program are on track for band scholarships, too.
Going forward, Tyra is hoping one day she’ll be able to turn Heartbeat into a private school.
