Calling All Teen Bands: Get Ready to Rock for Life-Saving Research

Online Battle of the Bands Benefits Children's Hospital Boston Winning Song to be Featured on Rock Band™ Network

September 30, 2010
Boston, MA - Teen bands from across the country are gearing up to rock and roll for a good cause during the Generation Cures Battle of the Bands, a national online music contest to benefit Children's Hospital Boston. Following the success of its first New England-based Battle of the Bands in April 2010, Children's Hospital is expanding the effort to inspire more teens to do what they love most-- create great music while "making it better" for the hospital's littlest rock stars.

Bands will post original songs with a "make it better" theme on their own personalized fundraising web pages. Family and friends can then log on to listen to the bands' songs, vote for their favorite, and support the cause by making an online gift. Interested bands can sign up at www.zebrafish.com/notes.

In November 2010, celebrity judges will review the top 10 submissions. The winner will receive a professional recording session at the Real School of Music and their song will be featured on the Rock Band™Network.

We The Kings, one of the hottest pop rock bands right now, is supporting Children's Hospital Boston and inspiring aspiring teen bands to enter and raise funds for one of the top pediatric hospitals nationwide. The band, who recently released the song "We'll Be A Dream" featuring Demi Lovato, visited Children's Hospital patients in September to kick off the effort. The band created a special video for the effort, which teens can view on Alloy Digital Network sites, including alloy.com, channelone.com and teen.com.

Band members must be between 13 and 20 years of age. The deadline for submission is November 19, 2010. The winner will be announced in January 2011. This contest is open to legal residents in California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. For complete rules, visit the contest web site.

Generation Cures is a philanthropic movement based at Children's Hospital Boston that provides kids and teens with online tools that inspire real-world generosity—all to benefit the hospital's world-renowned research program.

"Many times it is hard for us as teens to try to figure out how to give back. Children's Hospital makes it easy through Generation Cures," says Jessica Prouty, lead vocalist and bassist of The Jessica Prouty Band, which won "Best Song" in the first Generation Cures Battle in April 2010.

Generation Cures' Battle of the Bands contests have coincided with the national Zebrafish book release, a story about a tween garage band that rallies to help a sick bandmate and encourages kids everywhere to change the world. Published by Simon and Schuster the book is a collaboration between Children's Hospital, New York Times best-selling illustrator Peter Reynolds and FableVision.

Contact:
Amy Sweeney
617-355-4102
amy.sweeney@chtrust.org

ABOUT GENERATION CURES www.generationcures.org
Generation Cures is a philanthropic movement based at Children's Hospital Boston that provides kids and teens with online tools that inspire real-world generosity—all to benefit the hospital's world-renowned research program. The Generation Cures website offers free games, videos, music, webisodes and creativity challenges that inspire kids to make a difference. Engaged, young people can continue the journey offline by joining a Battle of the Bands competition, reading the graphic novel Zebrafish, organizing their own fundraiser, and more. Since launching in late 2008, Generation Cures has won more than 20 national awards for creativity, education and family fun and seals of approval from Good Housekeeping and Kidzui. Celebrities, including Forest and Keisha Whitaker, Jennie Garth, JoJo Levesque, Mayim Bialik, Neal McDonough, and We the Kings support the initiative.

Children's Hospital Boston is one of the nation's premier pediatric medical centers. Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, today it is a 392-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children's is the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, the largest provider of health care to the children of Massachusetts, and home to the world's leading pediatric research enterprise. For more information about Children's, visit: www.childrenshospital.org/newsroom.