Orgelkids

The project was initiated in the Netherlands in 2009 by Lydia Vroegindeweij and is directed towards cultural legacy and music education.

Preserving and maintaining this cultural legacy requires a continuing flow of new organists and organ builders.

To encourage this, in order to give more children exposure to organs, Orgelkids has made a special instrument available to schools.

The Orgelkids project has been brought into the Dutch "Stichting Kerk Muziek Netwerk" (Church Music Network Foundation) since 2013.

[2] This non-profit foundation engages to make relevant aspects of church music accessible to the greater public.

The Orgelkids instrument is a mechanical, tracker organ with two octaves (24 keys) and two registers which can be used independently or in combination.

First they build and play the Do-organ of Orgelkids, and afterwards the children can take a look at the "real" organ built by Michaël Maarschalkerweerd in 1890.

In Oregon a sister project, Orgelkids USA, an educational 501c3 nonprofit,[6] was launched in 2016 with the mission to help grow a nationwide network of independent kits.

Organ building shops can have apprentice builders work on an Orgelkids instrument during their practical training.

Orgelkids USA was launched with a generous grant by the New York City American Guild of Organists (AGO) '[10] Centennial Millennium Fund,[11][12] similar grants from the San Francisco and Seattle chapters of AGO and a social media fundraising campaign.