Elizabeth Forward music teacher starts Ukulele Club

By Kaylie Moore
kmoore@yourmvi.com
One year after their Christmas album filled many homes with holiday cheer, Kristy Ochs’ fifth-grade students are making music once again.
Ochs, a music teacher at Central and Greenock Elementary schools in the Elizabeth Forward School District, has founded the Mid-Mon Valley’s first student Ukulele Club.
A small, guitar-like instrument, the ukulele originated in the 19th century as a Hawaiian version of a Portuguese instrument known as a “machete,” which was introduced by immigrants.
In 2017, Ochs received a $1,000 grant from San Diego, Calif.-based nonprofit Real World Scholars, which her students used to start their own record label, “Arrowhead Music.”
The label’s first project was a Christmas album, which students recorded and produced themselves. Their profits totaled close to $3,000, Ochs said.

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