DALLAS — When Chloee Rae was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when she was 12, she worried her hopes and dreams of pursuing a music career might be a victim of her diagnosis too. Instead, she is now the newest face of an effort to help heal kids just like her through music.
Texas Music Project, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting at-risk youth through music education, launched Song of Hope, a new songwriting therapy initiative in its Music Heals program. Pediatric patients at Children’s Health in Dallas, including Joseph Sabin and his son Jace, a heart surgery survivor, penned a song called “Thank you for the Music.” Chloee Rae, now 16 and a former Children’s Health patient, performs the song in a TMP-produced video.
“Oh it helps me forget it even exists,” Chloee Rae said of music’s impact on her chronic illness. “It immediately makes you forget that anything is even wrong with you.”
“Music therapy has the extraordinary ability to empower youth, boost their confidence, and build connections with others facing similar challenges,” says Michael Clay, Co-Founder and Executive Director at Texas Music Project. “These amazing children can create and accomplish great things instead of being sidelined by illness.”
Clay says that Song of Hope was born from the stories of young patients and their families and their journeys through medical treatment.
“Thank you for the Music” opened a Christmas concert last week at Texas Trust CU Theatre in Grand Prairie featuring two-time Grammy Award winner Lauren Daigle who also donated $25,000 to the Texas Music Project cause. At the concert, Texas Music Project artists Aria Kutty, Shreya Chhaya and Cassie Rosa from Greenhill High School and 21-year-old ambassador Remy Reilly performed live. Reilly, a rising music star in North Texas, started performing in hospitals when her older brother was being treated often for his chronic illness.
“And it felt like for those three or four minutes of a song, you could see them really start to relax and have some hope and joy in their lives,” she said.
“It really opened their eyes and my eyes too that we really aren’t alone,” Chloee said about the impact of the music video. “And that there are so many people going through what we’re going through.”
“You’re never alone in your journey,” said Remy Reilly. “And, there will be brighter days.”
The experience has Chloee dreaming of brighter days following in Remy’s footsteps, perhaps with a music career of her own. And she hopes children, on a journey just like hers, find that their dreams are also still within reach.
The Texas Music Project’s The Music Heals program has also received support from musicians like Dallas artist and American Idol contestant, Jack Blocker, by receiving a $20,000 donation from ABC, Disney, and the CMA Foundation. Shaquille O’Neal (DJ Diesel), Coldplay, and more.