By Karen Stokes

Brandon Currie, CEO of STRYV365 (Photo by Karen Stokes)

Over 500 spirited students danced and sang with members of Motown’s most legendary bands including The Temptations, The Miracles and The Contours at the Riverside Theater on Friday December 17th.

The event, “A Motown Christmas”, was organized by a local non-profit organization, STRYV365, in partnership with schools, students, teachers and community partners.

Audiences were treated to a variety of Christmas music and Motown classics from the present and the past, such as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles hit “Tears of a Clown”.

STRYV365 is a Milwaukee-based non-profit organization that creates personalized, non-clinical trauma-informed programs.

“STRYV365 started with the idea that we wanted to create change by building resilience, creating mindsets of resilience, it starts with building relationships,” said Brandon Currie, CEO of STRYV365.

The program is designed to foster positive relationships during childhood, strengthen interpersonal skills, and increase the ability to be resilient during difficult times.

STRYV365 helps young people in the community overcome trauma through education, sports and activities.

Judith Parker, Director of Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy (Photo by Karen Stokes)

“If you want to create change, you have to build relationships,” Currie said. “You have to create positive experiences and we do that by being committed to the cause and wanting to cut layers, ask questions and work with you on how we can create solutions to create change. “

Judith Parker, Principal of Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy, explained that STRYV365 has given the school a safe place.

“I was so excited to meet Dr Currie because they figured it out,” Parker said. “They didn’t come with a quick fix, they wanted to meet our kids, they wanted to meet our team to understand the challenges we were facing and they were going to design a program that would address them.”

“Our organization turns two years old in January and we have had the privilege of partnering with approximately 20 organizations in Southeastern Wisconsin and Illinois,” said Cody Hallowell, vice president and legal counsel for STRYV365.

“In the last two years we’ve worked with over 3,500 students, our goal next year is to grow to 5,000 and keep going,” said Currie.

To learn more about STRYV365 or to support its mission, please email [email protected] or call (414) 502-9576.