Like so many at this holiday time, I look for inspiration to carry me into the new decade. This year, that inspiration comes from the incomparable Bernadette Bascom and the effect her talent and verve have had on her 150 or so “kids” of the music project at our school district’s Secondary Academy for Success (SAS).

She is truly a treasure to be recognized, appreciated and encouraged. As creative director, voice coach and mentor, she has taught and cajoled her kids individually into believing in themselves. Self-esteem, self-confidence and hope are words these young people can now believe in, and Bernadette has been there for them like no one else in their often troubled lives.

“Believe me,” she says, “many of these kids were messed up before they took the chance to participate. No way were they going to fail. Their lives have been turned around and their future is bright, full of hope.”

Four years ago while providing voice lessons to a student enrolled at SAS, she was encouraged to check out math teacher Jim Geiszler’s plan to develop a rare, extracurricular program at the school. He was building the program around blues in the schools, an effort to encourage young students to find positive, personal values through music.

Bernadette suggested she could work along with Geiszler, bringing her storied career in performance jazz to the project. She had returned to Seattle after years as a show-stopping headline vocalist in top-flight Las Vegas clubs. Her career had taken off as a teenager out on her own, but with a little help from Stevie Wonder, for whom she appeared as lead vocalist for many, many performances.

Now it was time to give back. Her goal was to convince her troupe of teenagers at SAS to believe in themselves, to develop a feeling of self-worth and to appear in public as jazz performers — recognized for their genuine talent, excited about their newly found acceptance by peers, parents and appreciative adults.

From these instructional sessions with Bernadette and her professional musician pals living in and passing through Seattle’s jazz scene, The Music Project Foundation emerged. Geiszler is the executive director and technical guy, Bernadette the creative director.

Her kids have performed at the Triple Door in Seattle, for the McKinstry environmental energy resource firm and at various charity fund-raising events. I first noticed them when they appeared at a Rotary-sponsored Santa Breakfast at Canyon Park Junior High, serving as backup for a young man by the name of Sanjaya — when the “American Idol” finalist made his first appearance locally.

I asked a friend and supporter of The Music Project to reflect on Bernadette and the success of her kids. I couldn’t have said it better:

“In a world that moves too quickly and emphasizes and rewards inappropriate behavior, Bernadette Bascom has delivered an uncommon gift to her students and by association, to the greater community.  In her teachings, Bernadette emphasizes the positive qualities of people and of life.

“She does not tolerate rudeness or disrespect, either in her students or in her music selections.  She chooses only positive messages in the music that The Music Project embraces and one has only to listen to this group in order to observe the profound effect those positive messages carry.

“For instance, one will notice that these children stand tall, look you and each other in the eye, and they sing from their heart.  They embrace the true meaning of their music — words they can actually be proud of, music that harmonizes, stirs the soul and makes them better human beings.  They are proud of themselves, proud of their teacher, friend and mentor and proud of their accomplishments.

“Bernadette has given these children the most fundamental of human rights . . .the inalienable right to be proud of who and what they are.  With that pride will come the courage to go forward into the world and be ready to face its challenges head on. These are skills and character traits that far too many of us are lacking and it shows in the degradation of our general societal norms.

“As Bernadette calls us each into action, she says it best when she asks, ‘If we don’t teach our children, who will’?’  She is an example to all of us to slow down, embrace what is true and right and upstanding and to get with the program to better ourselves and those around us.”

Bernadette’s vocabulary favorites, wouldn’t you know it, include “heart…hope…love”. Although especially appropriate during this season of the year, Bernadette employs these words of inspiration the year round, by touching so many lives with her candor and genuine care for others.

John B. Hughes was owner-publisher of the Northshore Citizen from 1961 to 1988 and is active in local nonprofit organizations.