LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Once a week in Las Vegas, the power of music brings military veterans together, connecting through shared feelings and experience.
The special group meets at The Space, just a few blocks away from the Las Vegas Strip.
“There’s a lot going on. I’m doing like four or five different things with my hands,” Chris Allen said.
However, the struggle at first eventually leads to satisfaction.
“Once you get your fingers to go where they’re going, they already have that muscle memory in place, so seeing yourself go from nothing to something. It’s an amazing feeling for sure,” Justin Silves said.
That sentiment echoes through several military veterans playing alongside each other through the Shoulder to Shoulder program.
The 10-week music education program is put on through Life By Music, a local nonprofit trying to connect with the community through music.
“Life By Music started as a motto, like a hashtag that we would use as local musicians here in Las Vegas,” Life By Music executive director Ryan Patrick Boylan said.
“We give out scholarships to music programs and young kids aspiring to be better artists and continuing their musical ambitions. And now we work with veterans, too.”
This is only the third round of working with veterans but Boylan told FOX 5 it’s been a quick success.
Not just because of the music, but the bonds veterans like Justin Silves are forming with the people around them.
“These are small classes, and everybody who’s in here knows what you’ve been through,” Silves said.
“It’s a place where everybody has the same issues you do and it’s as much a support group as it is a learning experience.”
Chris Allen feels the same way.
The 20-year Air Force veteran feels more comfortable around his fellow service men and women.
He sees this class as a way to find a connection with people close to home.
“Some of these vets I’ve met now previously in previous classes, so you get those friendships, you get that community built up to where it’s not just your buddy that’s 5000 miles away, that knows you. It’s some other folks,” Allen said.
While only doing the classes once a year right now, Boylan and Life By Music hope to host more Shoulder to Shoulder programs in the future and expand their reach into the Las Vegas veteran community.
“Sometimes you can get caught up with life. Everything going on, all the things going on in the world,” Boylan said.
“When I’m doing the courses with our veterans and the classes with our youth, I always leave, like, OK, I did something good. We did something good and it’s working.”
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