TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A Bay Area woman has turned the ultimate loss for a mom into a joy filled calling. Karen Gliddon is teaching music to little kids with cancer.<\/p>\n
Each Wednesday Gliddon travels to the 1 Voice Academy in Hillsborough County to use an interactive style of teaching called Music with Mar. <\/p>\n
It was developed by Maryann \u201cMar\u201d Harman. There is lots of movement involved. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s an excitement with sound and exploration. It\u2019s a way to express yourself,\u201d said Gliddon.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
\u00a0Karen Gliddon teaches music to children being treated for cancer
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\u00a0She uses the “Music with Mar” method
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The children go to a special school called 1 Voice Academy
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Gliddon is motivated to teach children with cancer because her son Matthew died from Leukemia<\/p>\n
The students attending the school are being treated for cancer and can\u2019t attend regular schools. 1 Voice Academy feels more like home. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s magical to watch it unfold,\u201d said Gliddon, who forms a bond with the children. \u201cThis is my second time with my friend AJ and we\u2019re connected. The first class was way different than this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gliddon also has her own business called K Peas Place in Tampa. It\u2019s an indoor playground where she also teaches music to children.<\/p>\n
Gliddon has a special reason for teaching music to children with cancer. Her son Matthew passed away from leukemia when he was five. <\/p>\n
She was so devastated that she didn\u2019t want to continue teaching music. But then she got a phone call from Our Lady of Lourdes church in Dunedin where Matthew\u2019s memorial service was held. They wanted her to teach music to their school students. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I said that\u2019s a sign that he wants me to continue. And I continued and it was hard, but it became easier because it became therapeutic.\u201d Gliddon considers her teaching a calling from God.<\/p>\n
Gliddon has become a blessing for 1 Voice Academy. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe brings what I like to call accidental learning,\u201d said 1 Voice Foundation Executive Director Mary Ann Massolio. \u201cThe next thing you know they are doing sign language, and they are writing their names, and they don\u2019t necessarily know they are learning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gliddon has a goal for what the children experience. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cJoy. It\u2019s all joy. The academic side of what unfolds really is something that develops on their own,\u201d she said. \u201cI just hope they enjoy coming and being together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0A Bay Area woman has turned the ultimate loss for a mom into a joy filled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,2297,770,2296,28,115,772,2298,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-202248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-community","tag-app-everyday-heroes","tag-community-news","tag-everyday-hero","tag-florida","tag-news","tag-on-air-ticker-article","tag-rick-elmhorst","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}