The Drummers Institute of Georgia

WHAT IS PAY IT FORWARD?

Pay It Forward is a concept based on the book by author Catherine Ryan Hyde and subsequent movie staring Helen Hunt, Haley Joel Osment and Kevin Spacey. It's an action plan within a work of fiction. But does it have to be fiction? I hope not...

Pay It Forward starts a movement with this voluntary, extra-credit assignment: THINK OF AN IDEA FOR WORLD CHANGE, AND PUT IT INTO ACTION.

In her book, Trevor, the 12-year-old hero of Pay It Forward, thinks of quite an idea. He describes it to his mother and teacher this way: "My dad said if you were going to work for somebody for thirty days, and you had a choice: you could take a hundred dollars a day, or you could take a dollar the first day, and then it would be doubled every day. I said I'd take a hundred dollars a day. But he said I'd lose out. So I worked it out on my calculator. A hundred dollars a day for thirty days is three thousand dollars. But if you double that dollar every day, you'd make over five hundred million on your last day. Not to mention everything between.

You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward to three more people, each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven." He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see? To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"

The above is merely an illustration to show how the idea of doing a "good deed" can snowball. Remember, "Pay It Forward" is about doing something "real good" for someone without expecting anything in return for yourself. The only thing expected is for that person to do something real good for three other people. The unconditional favors can be large or small. It doesn't have to be something that will bring about "world change" which of course would always be nice, or to use Trevor's words "...it doesn't have to be a big thing. It can just seem that way, depending on whom you do it for..."

SO HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO DRUMMERS INSTITUTE OF GEORGIA?

I was so impressed with Trevor's concept that I thought of a way to put his plan into action here at D.I.G. Here's how the program will work:

D.I.G. will offer a month's worth of free drum lessons to those who can not afford to pay for them initially, with the understanding that the student must "Pay It Forward." In fact, the student will receive an extra free lesson at the end of the program if he submits a short one page essay explaining how he helped each of the three people.

The goal here is to introduce the world of music to the financially disadvantaged, at the same time knowing that other people are helped through selfless acts of kindness. As a bonus, a discounted lesson program will be available to those who wish to continue their studies after the free period has expired.