“Once upon a time, there was a town at the foot of a hill, almost a small village really, yet one with a wealth of art and culture. There was a great school, and gardens next to it, where we children learned through play”. The documentary that aired on the main Italian TV channel last September 9 began with the voices of our students from the Marche region, with the rhymed fairy tale with a happy ending about their special childhood and a wound that today has now healed.
Directed by Gaetano Morbioli – a long-time friend to ABF –, the TV special provided an overview of the Foundation’s first eight years and of the 20 projects brought to fruition.
From our Founder to the Chairman Stefano Aversa and the Vice-Chair Veronica Berti Bocelli, there were many testimonies that accompanied this moving journey into philanthropy, with a special focus on more recent projects, linked to the contribution that ABF wanted to give to the Italian region that has been most affected by the earthquake that hit Central Italy in 2016.
However, it was the words of the Foundation’s President, Laura Biancalani, who symbolically led the viewers, step by step, to discover ABF’s real project model, which has already been applied to build eight schools: “We started with those communities that have shown a great attachment to their territory, yet have lost their established meeting places. A church or a square where they can come together. Part of our mission was precisely to rebuild those links in the social fabric that the earthquake had damaged.
It is crucial to visit the place and listen to what is asked of us and attempt to make use of all the information. For example, the creation of the “E. De Amicis” Pre-School and Elementary School in Muccia began, before anything else, with a meeting with the children. It was a beautiful day when, together with our team of two educationalists (one of whom is a musician), engineers and architects, our little stakeholders came up with the most bizarre ideas, from their favorite colors for the new school to the inclusion of an area dedicated to sports on the roof, and an aquarium inside the school.
ABF projects span many years and also include educational projects, which aim to nurture the talents of the citizens of tomorrow. In fact, we involve our educationalists even before the technical staff, because they are tasked with “interpreting” the context that the children will grow up in and creating the perfect space to help their talents flourish. Furthermore, within the schools that we build, we try to bring music and art back to the heart of our students’ education.
After the inauguration of the school complexes of Sarnano and Muccia, our commitment continues. We have a strong desire to do something and, at the same time, to be responsible for what we have done. Because even in the places where the earth shook – as Andrea Bocelli reminds us – music should still make our hearts vibrate.
In line with the desire of our founder, to go beyond the emergency, to create places of opportunity and talent creation, so that those talents can then make the difference in the future of a place and a community, we have focused our sights on another dream: that of giving back the town of Camerino its Music Academy”.
