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At CIM, giving back is nothing new. Students have been making music for their University Circle neighbors practically since day one. 

But there was something different about the events of a certain Friday earlier this spring. The performances and other work that took place weren’t for credit or organized by the school. They were entirely student-run.   

“In a way, CIM kind of does this year-round, but I feel like this was a special thing,” said piano student Alice Zhang, president of CIM’s Student Government Association, which organized the “Day of Service.”  

“This was no strings attached. We were just there to help.” 

Zhang is right. CIM does do this kind of thing year-round.  

Requirements have varied, but CIM students have been performing at local senior centers, hospitals, and libraries as part of their coursework for years. Some have sung Christmas Carols at area shopping malls. Others have serenaded voters at a polling location on election night.  

But Zhang is also right to say that the SGA event was different, in that all of it was voluntary. Those who arranged and took part in it did so purely out of a desire to do good.  

And good they did.  

One group of students and staff walked down the street to University Hospitals, where they swiftly knocked out administrative tasks aiding veterans and new patients at Seidman Cancer Center.  

A second, more mobile group hopped in cars and headed to the near West side. Their task? To distribute flyers to coffee shops and bakeries all over Cleveland on behalf of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center. 

A third group, meanwhile, consisting of members of CIM’s Black Student Union, spent the morning preparing turkey dinners to be served by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.  

And there were strings – of a sort – attached, as well as several reeds. For their contribution to the effort, piano student Yao Xiao and a student woodwind quintet serenaded patients and staff at Seidman.  

All told, “It was a feel-good moment,” said UH volunteer Laura Riley, Manager of Institutional Giving at CIM. “Music is always feel-good, but this was different. It was good for us to get out of our comfort zones.”  

One who especially appreciated SGA’s “Day of Service” was Chris Auerbach-Brown (MM ’95), a CIM alum who, when he’s not writing new music, works as Volunteer Services Coordinator at UH.  

He noted that while UH hosts plenty of volunteers, it’s rare the hospital sees guests from local colleges, beyond those fulfilling academic or other work requirements. Moreover, he said, what CIM brought to the table – calm, through music – was unique, and invaluable.  

“In a hospital,” Auerbach-Brown said, “there’s a focus on medical treatment. But patients really benefit from emotional treatments, too. Music falls into that. What you’re doing here is treating the soul as well as the body.” 

While the performers were setting up in the Seidman lobby, other groups of students and staff were hard at work in other areas of the hospital.  

Chief Finance Officer Brian Foss, for instance, gift-wrapped boxes to be filled with books for patients to read during long chemotherapy treatments. He said he found the work not only enjoyable but also meaningful personally.  

“The whole experience meant so much to me, as I worked...where my mother-in-law is currently undergoing treatment for cancer and receiving such amazing and compassionate care,” he said.  

Not far from Foss at UH were Riley and second-year trombone student Alex Karstedt. With smiles on their faces, the two workers from different spheres at CIM quickly got onto friendly terms as they bound spiral books and loaded swag into bright-red drawstring sacks destined for patients who are veterans.  

One topic of conversation, among many: how much they enjoyed being there, breaking out of their routines, and helping CIM strengthen ties to neighboring organizations.  

“I think the more we’re in the community, the better,” Riley said. “Forging relationships should be encouraged. I think we lose a lot when we get siloed.” 

Similarly engaged were Zhang and fellow student Amelia Cannavo, a violinist. Down a few hallways at Seidman Cancer Center, they stuffed packets with information designed to orient and calm new patients as they begin a daunting new phase in their lives.  

“Cancer is very complicated to treat, and patients can get overwhelmed,” said Auerbach-Brown. “We want to make sure the information they’re getting is streamlined, so they feel comfortable with the process.” 

No less critical was the work performed across town by members of CIM’s Black Student Union (BSU). They spent their “Day of Service” preparing some of the 6,000 meals distributed daily by the Greater Cleveland Food Bank.  

Trumpet student Jamie Walton, leader of a group that included students Adam Lindsey and Milo Klise, said the BSU pushed to visit the Food Bank out of concerns raised by federal funding cuts and statistics showing high degrees of food insecurity around Greater Cleveland.  

They were not disappointed. “We very much enjoyed doing our tasks,” Walton said, noting that their efforts helped “not just the [Food Bank] workers who are preparing thousands of these meals daily but [also] hundreds of thousands...relying on these meals to feed their families.”  

CIM’s new “Day of Service” got started with a push from Devina Hogan, Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs and Services. Eager to revive a program that thrived before the pandemic, she reminded student organizations of the possibility of community service.  

“I wanted them to be more civically engaged,” she said. “It’s important for them to step outside CIM and do some philanthropic work.” 

That they took the hint and went above and beyond does not surprise her. In her years at CIM, she’s learned that students can do much more than just play their instruments, and that music isn’t their only passion.  

That’s why CIM’s “Day of Service” will be back, she said. Everyone who participated is eager to do it again, and to involve more people.  

“It goes to show that our students, given the autonomy to plan and execute, are fully capable,” Hogan said.  

“Their hearts are in the right places. Even though we’re smaller, we can make a larger impact and enlarge our footprint throughout the city of Cleveland.”