ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp Goes Virtual

The Academy of Country Music’s Lifting Lives program hosted its annual ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp with Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities earlier this month with several virtual events.

Held June 10-17 via videoconference, campers from around the world, including the United States, Canada and Australia participated in virtual activities. Cassadee Pope joined the campers during a live Zoom interview session with Seacrest Studios in Nashville, where the campers did a Q&A with Pope. The interview session was also broadcasted to a closed-circuit network for the patients at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt to tune in. Ross Copperman, J.T. Harding and Runaway June joined campers to write the original song, “World of Love,” to be recorded by each participant individually and compiled into a final song by Copperman. ACM and Vanderbilt staff joined the campers via Zoom Saturday morning, creating instruments from items at home. The ACM Lifting Lives Music Camp continued with a talent show performance from each camper, featuring special appearances from Frankie Ballard, Michael Ray and Tenille Townes live via Zoom. Following the weekend activities, camp concluded with a variety of music-oriented activities such as line dancing and yoga through Wednesday, June 17.

“In spite of not having camp in-person this year, we were delighted to provide this virtual experience to 29 campers, five that joined for the first time,” said Lyndsay Cruz, ACM Lifting Lives Executive Director. “We felt it was more important than ever this year to continue to provide our campers with the music-oriented and educational experiences they enjoy, and we are so thankful to each artist and the country music community who helped make this camp a reality.”