Other partner organizations, including the American Music Conference, an established non-profit that promotes the benefits of music and music making, will help to continually improve the effectiveness of parents and advocates by adding tools and links on the site.

The initiative is being launched during March’s national “Music in Our Schools Month” in response to unprecedented education budget cuts. Noting that some areas of the nation already give students insufficient experience in the discipline of music education, the Music Education Coalition predicts that the current round of budget cuts will lead to curtailment of programs depriving as many as 30 million students (more than 60% of those enrolled in K-12) of an education that includes music. The key, according to the Coalition, is to energize local grass roots effortsand has more than four decades of experience in the hospitality sector. A graduate of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, Mr Dodwell was named the 2010 Caribbean Hotelier of the Year.

Minister Crockwell’s full statement follows below:

Good afternoon and thank you for coming.

I am pleased to be joined this afternoon by well known local hotelier Mr. David Dodwell.

I am also pleased to announce that Mr. Dodwell has been appointed the Chairman of the Tourism Board and the Chairman Designate of the new Tourism Authority for Bermuda which we aspire to have established within the next 6 months.

Mr. Dodwell has been tasked with leading the formation of and creating the structure for the new Authority that will fulfill one of our election promises – to move Tourism out