The Franklin Imagine Group

We launched our first Camp Lotus the week of June 17th - June 22nd 2019 where 47 local youth were impacted in various aspects of the music business. We structured each day with a morning session with Kirk Franklin and other key leaders in the industry. The afternoons were spent working in clinics on their specific instruments and vocal arrangements as they prepared a piece to perform at the end of the week.

Examples of our workshop session topics were: Who are You? Your Power Behind the Mic; Music Business 101; Creating & Maintaining Your Brand; Social Media & Visual Assets; Auditioning & Preparing for College; Self Care in the Grind; Strategic Partnerships & Networking; Entertainment Law & Finance - as well as impromptu guest visits, and a tour of University of Texas Music Department. Our ultimate goal for each camper was to show them how to dream big while also providing them a glimpse of what it takes to have a career in this field.

Camp was closed out with group performances hosted by Kirk & Tammy Franklin at the Levitt Pavilion in Downtown Arlington. We hosted an estimated community turnout of 3,800 attendees! The campers truly exhibited the tools they received over the course of the week to arrange and perform mashup songs together as a team.Other results of the week were seen in the bonds of the youth that were in attendance, the encouragement and support they gave each other, and the lifelong friendships that were established. We're looking forward to hosting the second week of camp in the summer of 2021.

Our Needs

The Franklin family wanted to make sure that no prospective campers would be deterred to attend camp due to financial troubles; so the camp is free to all students who are accepted. That being said, our biggest need is to cover the cost of camp. We are a small but great team of mainly volunteers, as we don't have any paid staff at this time. Our primary costs are for the meals during the week, transportation around the city to and from the studio, rehearsal hall, downtown library, Levitt Pavilion, UTA and other field trips. Other costs include but aren't limited to photography, videography, social media, etc. This averages out to $800 per camper, which gives them an experience of a lifetime!

Our future goals include exposing our campers to other music events in the city, like Bass Hall. We hope you will consider a gift of any amount to support and invest in our youth.