Beneficiaries

In 2025, the Light Up The Queen Foundation awarded over $75,000 in grant money to support music education programs at The Choir School of Delaware, Christina Cultural Arts Center, Cityfest Inc., The Grand Opera House, Kingswood Community Center, Cultural Restoration Project at Kuumba Academy, and Reed’s Refuge Center.

All seven organizations reach our program-goal audience of musically-inclined youth in Delaware’s underserved communities.

These funds were generated by gifts from our generous donors and well as the 2025 Shine A Light benefit concert. Below is a description of some of the programs funded by the Foundation.

The Choir School of Delaware was awarded funding to support its Young Artist Program, a comprehensive music and mentorship initiative designed for students ages 12 and older. The program focuses on “building the whole human” by integrating intensive musical training with academic readiness and professional development. Participants receive weekly private voice lessons and studio classes with live accompaniment, alongside unique networking opportunities through community partnerships. By bringing in professional songwriters, choreographers, and university professors, the program bridges gaps in professional development and artistic exposure. This multifaceted approach uses choral music to foster essential life skills—including community building, networking, and accountability—leveling the playing field and providing students with the tools and confidence to pursue their future goals as the best versions of themselves.
​Kingswood Community Center was awarded $17,000 to support its partnership with Wilmington Children’s Chorus. The collaboration sees WCC vocal instructors teaching KCC children twice a week as part of a year-round, play-based, culturally responsive, and developmentally appropriate music program created for early learners. Studies show that starting these musical programs at such an early provides important cognitive and social benefits, which continue through childhood development.
Reed’s Refuge Center was awarded $8,500 to support the intermediate level of its Young Professionals Series, a four-week professional development program that uses song-writing, music creation, and videography to foster job skills and techniques. Designed for RCC children of ages 8-16, the series utilizes math (with music theory); science (with technology); and language (with songwriting) — all while encouraging personal and professional developmental skills of punctuality, accountability, listening and following directions, problem solving, project planning and teamwork.
Christina Cultural Arts Center was awarded $5,000 to further its one-on-one music programs. For six years, CCAC has enjoyed an ongoing relationship with LUQ via our sister program, the Christian Salcedo Music Scholarship fund. Each year, three CSMS recipients are each awarded a $1000 grant that includes musical equipment and one-on-one instruction at CCAC.
When kids understand where they come from, they start to see where they can go.

That’s the heartbeat of the Culture Restoration Project. Led by Ali Sha Watson and Richard Watson, the nonprofit uses art, music, and history to help young people build confidence, character, and community.

With $16,200 from the Light Up the Queen Foundation, their team pours that mission into Kuumba Academy, showing students that learning can sound like a drumbeat, feel like pride, and look like purpose.

Through programs like Beyond Those Bars, a hip-hop-based education series, students learn more than rhythm. They learn identity, discipline, and how to move through life with good and gentle character.

It’s not just after-school programming. It’s restoration in motion.

When you give a child a new sound, you hand them a new way to see the world. That’s what happens at Cityfest.

Five hundred kids walked into a theater, some for the first time, and met jazz in all its wild, living color.

Cityfest Inc.’s Tina Betz saw what community support can really do. With backing from the Light Up The Queen Foundation, her nonprofit filled those seats.

 

Jonathan Whitney’s team at Flux Creative Consulting brought in Jazz Reach, a group that turns music education into an experience of live instruments, storytelling, visuals, rhythm that makes history feel close enough to touch.

Together, they reminded everyone in the room: art isn’t a luxury. It’s a language. And the earlier we teach it, the louder it shines.

Cityfest was awarded $12,000 in 2025 for their From Jazz to Ja-Fun-Go: Inspiring Students Through Sound and Story program.

Funding was also awarded to the following programs:

  • The Choir School of Delaware ($13,000)
  • The Grand Opera House’s Summer in the Parks program ($5,000)

Highlights of these programs are coming soon. Please check back for more information.