By Carol Ann Gregg

Allied News Staff Writer

When Fitore Shllaku, of Gjakove, Kosovo, learned to play the penny whistle, she never dreamed it would lead to traveling to the United States.

“I couldn’t have imagined coming here,” Fitore said.

She has completed her senior year as an honor student at Slippery Rock High School. She came last August as a Rotary Club International exchange student and lived with Terry and Stacey Steele.

The Steeles met Fitore in her homeland of Kosovo while they were visiting a very unique music program there.

The program, Shropshire Music Foundation, was started in 1999 by Liz Shropshire of California. This music teacher was touched by the reports of ethnic cleansing and refugee crises in Kosovo. The images of traumatized children tugged on her heart. She had to do something.

According to information on the foundation’s Web site, www.shropshirefoundation.orgshe had fundraisers, solicited support, including musical instrument manufacturers, and spent her savings to start her project. She gathered harmonicas, penny whistles, drumsticks, four electric keyboards, beginning piano books, pencils, a portable stereo and a tape recorder to set up shop in Gjakove, Kosovo. The program began in earnest in 2000 and became a non-profit foundation in 2001. Shropshire took her program to elementary schools working with young children. Through music Shropshire is able to convey that violence isn’t the answer.

The Shropshire Music Foundation believes that programs teaching children peace through music can change the lives of war-impacted children and help build peace in war-ravaged communities worldwide. There is now a program for the children in northern Ireland and Uganda who have lived with war.

At a music conference in California, Stacey learned about the foundation and brought information home about Shropshire’s work. She and her husband, both accomplished musicians, planned to travel in Europe during their 2007 sabbatical from the Slippery Rock University Music Department. They inquired about visiting the project and added two weeks to their trip. They served as resource people with Kosovo Children’s Music Initiative.

It was while working with the teenage volunteers there that they met Fitore. She was one of many teenagers who give of their time and musical talent to bring peace and healing to children through music. Fitore had come to the program in 2002.

Fitore can play the harmonica, penny whistle, ukulele, guitar, didgeridoo, piano and clarinet. In 2003, she became a teenager and began volunteering as a teacher for the younger children. Shropshire’s philosophy is to find worth in each child and to help them deal with the traumatic situation that they have endured. The program emphasizes peace and hope and that violence is not the answer. According to the foundation’s brochure, “Shropshire has developed a remarkable grassroots humanitarian program that promotes peace and healing through children’s mush education and performance programs.”

The Steeles worked with the teenage volunteer teachers to give them additional skills to use while working with the younger children. Terry Steele taught Fitore a little clarinet during his time in Kosovo.

After the Steeles returned to Slippery Rock, they began to inquire about how they could host this bright, energetic teen in their home. How could they provide her with an opportunity to get an American education? After months of e-mails, conferences with Rotary members both in Slippery Rock and in Kosovo, and much paperwork, it was finally arranged that Fitore would live with the Steeles for her senior year at Slippery Rock High School.