Highlands Ranch – Kristin Earley yodeled and crooned to perfection through the country ballad “Blue” as snow glinted in the cobalt stage lights at Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Her soulful rendition won Earley the championship of “Gimme the Mike” on April 27. The 19-year-old beauty bested hundreds of other competitors in UPN 20’s knockoff of “American Idol.” And once she proved her golden voice, she proved her golden heart.
She gave away her grand prize, a piano worth $5,000.
It seems that Platte River Academy, a charter school in Highlands Ranch, has an ambitious music program but a fading second-hand piano.
Earley remedied that Thursday, when the new piano was delivered to the school – one much nicer than the 8-year-old school could ever afford.
“They will get a lot more use out of it than I ever would,” Earley said.
A college student, Earley could have sold the piano and put thousands of dollars in her own pocket, said Heidy Tomic, officer manager for Platte River Academy.
“There’s so much she could have done for herself,” Tomic said, “but she did this because she believed in the school and wanted to help the children.”
She also has inspired others.
The Platte River Academy, in turn, is donating its used piano to another charter school, American Academy, opening in Douglas County this fall.
The piano’s original donor, the Colorado-based Makkin Music chain, added a $500 keyboard for the school, and company co-founder Sheila Rockley said the chain intends to do more to help make music a fixture in schools.
“Study after study shows that music programs improve IQ and has a direct relationship to the number of kids who make it to college,” Rockley said.
Earley is continuing her musical dream. She is attending Dodge City Community College on a softball scholarship, but her major is music.
Her dream started when she got a karaoke machine for her birthday, and soon she was styling songs by Reba McEntire and Martina McBride.
Though she gave away the piano, Earley still gets a free trip to Las Vegas and a year’s worth of Pizza Hut meals for winning the title.
And it has brought her attention: She will sing the national anthem at a Rockies baseball game at Coors Field on July 8, and open for the country group Lonestar at Coors Amphitheatre in Greenwood Village on July 3.
She hopes to someday reach the finals of another TV show, “American Idol.” She tried out two years ago, when she was 17, “but it didn’t go anywhere,” she said.
Earley graduated from ThunderRidge High School in 2004 after rising up through its feeder network of public schools.
She learned of Platte River Academy’s tiring piano from her neighbor Diane DiPinto, who teaches Spanish at the school.
Giving away something worth so much for nothing in return surprised Moss Cremer, the talent show’s executive producer.
But it didn’t last long.
“After I met Kristin and her mom, I wasn’t that surprised she would do this,” he said. “They’re just really caring people who have a connection to this school.”
Staff writer Joey Bunch can be reached at 303-820-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com.