Two members of the Northwest Valley Ukulele Club, Sandy Miller and Lauren Erickson, are organizing a ukulele driveway concert to benefit Rosie’s House, a nonprofit music academy for children.

It’s scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 20 in the cul-de-sac at 22002 N. Mirage Lane in Sun City West.

Rosie’s House is dedicated to providing high-quality, free music education to children in the Phoenix Valley who have financial constraints and limited resources.

It believes in nurturing every child’s creative potential through personalized instruction, diverse musical disciplines and a supportive community. Its mission is simple: To eliminate barriers to high-quality music education. Through music, it supports youth as they develop their full creative and personal potential.

The Northwest Valley Ukulele Club has a goal to raise $300 or more in donations at this driveway concert.

The public is invited to bring a chair, refreshments, a sun hat and a greatly-appreciated donation. There will be information about Rosie’s House and the NWV Uke Club at the concert, along with homemade baked goodies for attendees.

The Northwest Valley Ukulele Club is a group of dedicated ukulele players and singers from all over the Valley who get together at 10 a.m. every Saturday to play for the residents of Fellowship Square Surprise retirement community.

The group began 11 years ago and was inspired by founders Tom Achtenberg and Linda Cole, residents of Sun City West.

It all started in 2013, when Achtenberg first moved to SCW. He took a tour of the Recreation Centers with Dori Miller, and asked if there was a ukulele group he could join.

She said Cole had just approached her about starting up a ukulele club, so Miller put Achtenberg and Cole in touch with each other. Together, they formed a non-chartered club called the Sun City West Ukulele Club.

The group started out with five to six people simply meeting up and playing in the Kuentz Courtyard for the first two to three years. The difficulties with scheduling and weather issues forced the club indoors to Basha’s Grocery Store Community Room.

The room was free to area residents and was able to hold up to 16 people. Within just a few months, the club quickly grew as people began to hear about them playing.

At 20 members and growing, the club needed to find a new space to play. One member who lived in The Rose Garden Active 55-Plus Community asked them if they could use their social hall for playing their ukes and they agreed. It flourished there for a couple of years.

They even performed as a club for the first time in a Patriotic Themed Concert with 26 enthusiastic strummers and a lively audience who sang and clapped along to the familiar tunes.

In 2018, The Rose Garden was sold and the ukers had to search for a new location which they found with Fellowship Square Surprise Retirement Community. Every Saturday morning ukulele club used an overhead projector for the music and sat around tables while they played. A house microphone was provided for the song leaders.

Residents of Fellowship Square were invited to enjoy the music each week and this continues there today. Cole has taught hundreds of ukulele students through the years with at least a dozen who have moved away and started up their own ukulele clubs because of Linda’s positive influence. Achtenberg continues to enjoy music through his all-veteran band “Sudden Strangers.”

Achtenberg and Cole passed the leadership baton on to Andrea Abamovich, who then passed it on to the current leadership team of Lauren Erickson, LeeAnn Reardon, Diane Stratton and Herb Tirjer. In 2023, the name of the club was officially changed at their 10th Anniversary Celebration Concert to the “Northwest Valley Ukulele Club” due to the vast number of cities represented by its members.

Anyone is welcome to join the Northwest Valley Ukulele Club, and there are no dues. Members range in experience from six months to 10-plus years of playing the ukulele. They come from many surrounding cities and communities including Surprise, Glendale, Peoria, Buckeye, Wittman, Sun City, Goodyear, Sun City West, Wickenburg, Scottsdale, Tempe, Anthem, Sun City Festival, Black Canyon City and El Mirage.

For information about becoming a member, email nwvuke@gmail.com.