The Disclosures’ Texas Tour – 3 Days of Music, Money Lessons and Kids

They say everything is bigger in Texas and that just might be true, as we look back at our visit to the Lone Star State and our biggest tour yet! We had a fantastic time debuting our youth financial education music performances following the recent release of our new kids album, “The Secret to Being Rich.”

Our shows featured many of our financial education songs, as well as some fun discussion with students about savings and being careful with money. We played for over 1,000 students on the tour and while it’s hard to condense all of the awesome things that happened into one blog post, here’s our attempt at doing so!

Day 1: Beaumont, Nederland and Vidor, Texas – Sponsored by FivePoint Credit Union

The first day of the tour was a busy one, with a total of four shows lined up throughout the day. Two shows were for pre-K and 1st grade audiences and we played in school gymnasiums (one was even decked out in pirate flags since their school mascot was a pirate – perfect for our “Kidd Silver” song!). For the other two shows, we were fortunate to play in the very impressive Nederland School Performing Arts Center for large groups of 2nd and 3rd graders.

At both shows for the older group, we were asked to play encores of “Thank my Piggy Bank” as the kids sang and screamed along with the chorus. Our “smash hit” with kids made us feel like The Beatles for a brief second! Afterwards, we took pictures with the students and so many of them were excited to talk about their piggy banks and what they were saving for. We wish we had more time to talk with them all, but encouraged them to keep up the great work and talk with their parents, credit union and teachers about how to make their savings dreams come true.

We were lucky to also be joined by FivePoint CU’s mascot Starbit, who was a trooper and danced with us at every show. Click here to watch a video snippet from the arts center and here are some pictures from the day:

Day 2: Ft. Worth and Azle, Texas – Sponsored by Tarrant County Credit Union

After a flight to Ft. Worth, day 2 of the tour kicked off in a neat old school auditorium (pictured at the top of this post) where we played to a large crown of 3rd through 5th graders. This was followed by a fun Q & A session with the kids where we talked about more money tips, our musical backgrounds and how we are not, in fact, brothers.

The second show venue probably had the most elaborate stage set as it was a elementary school cafeteria decorated for a Valentine’s Day assembly. The school’s 3rd and 4th graders sat on the floor and had a great time singing and moving to our songs about money! Again, we were asked if we were brothers or cousins. Again, the answer was no.

Both groups proved to be excited and very ambitious about their savings goals. When we asked them what they were saving up for, their answers included “a house”, “a car” and “money for college tuition” — impressive, right? We led the kids through a quick exercise to demonstrate the difference between wants and needs and encouraged them to keep their dreams big while also being realistic, which we hope was helpful for the few kids who said they needed a Ferrari or a mansion!

More pictures are below:

Day 3: Dallas, Texas

The third and last day of the tour culminated with a performance at the Cornerstone Credit Union Foundation’s FOCUS Summit in Dallas. The conference is for financial education advocates (credit union professionals and others) and we got to kick it off with our interactive education session called “The Power of Song – Amping up Financial Education”. We played some of our new kids songs and shared insight on the creative process, experiential learning and the power of music and humor in education. It was also a lot of fun getting the adults to shout the infamous pirate “ARGH!” just like the kids had been doing the past two days (click here for a video snippet).

We were followed on the agenda by Jean Chatzky, bestselling author and financial editor of NBC’s Today Show, who we met afterwards and later that day, she even had some nice words to say about our performance on her Facebook page. Here are some pictures of the performance and The Disclosures posing with Ms. Chatzky afterwards:

Also, as a nice surprise, the local news was there (KTXD-TV) and we are featured in a segment about Jean Chatzky at 0:30 here:

All in all, our time in Texas was extremely gratifying and something we’ll never forget and we had tons of fun interacting with the students. One teacher said that after the show kids were “pumped” about savings and “singing their hearts out.” Another said she “so enjoyed the program” and her “class was singing it all day!” And Mandy Clayton with FivePoint Credit Union said:

“The Disclosures, Chad and Chris, are truly fabulous! They have an amazing way of bringing music with a mission of financial education that is fun for students and they don’t even realize they are learning.  It’s an awesome sound to hear elementary school students belting out songs about thanking my piggy bank and saving for their needs & wants, that’s when you know they really get it.”

Thanks again to FivePoint Credit Union and Tarrant County Credit Union for making this tour possible and taking good care of us (special thanks to Mandy and Tawna!). Also, big thanks to Courtney and the Cornerstone Credit Union Foundation for inviting us to their FOCUS Summit and let us “warm up” for Jean Chatzky!