BEN TRACY SPEAKS ABOUT DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP

On January 24 and 25, Ben Tracy, the founder of Safe Social Network, shared his story about the value of digital citizenship and safe social media use during sessions for parents, upper school students, and middle school students in the Bank of America Theatre Safe Social Network is a platform that provides guidance about digital etiquette to parents and youth

Tracy was invited to Hammond as part of an administrative push to promote student wellness through opportunities like annual guest speakers. He began the Network after he was fired from his job in the office of former Illinois governor Bruce Rauner when Tracy’s past offensive social media posts resurfaced During the assemblies, Tracy shared the story of his ouster, using it as a launchpoint to discuss the value of good digital conduct

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He’s a song writer, music entrepreneur, guitar teacher, and popular Columbia-area country singer Folks from South Carolina to California know him as the “Adios Corona” guy Here at Hammond, we know him as Blake Weinbach, class of 2021

“I’m so proud of Blake,” says tenth grade history teacher and guitar club sponsor Mrs Lizzy Culler “I remember him coming to guitar club as a ninth grader, enjoying the music around him, often singing, but rarely playing a guitar. Now he is organizing songwriters’ shows, recording his second album, and embracing music as his passion and career ”

And in a way, it all started at Hammond, or at least the Zoom version of Hammond that came about in 2020: “We had just gotten out of school and been quarantined for like seven days, and I was just really bored,” Blake remembers with a smile His ingenious remedy for boredom was to write a funny song about the Coronavirus

After an hour or two of composing, it was finished, recorded, and uploaded to social media “Adios, Corona, see you later my dear, I don’t know if you’ve heard this yet but you’re not welcome here!” he sings to the camera in the four-minute video (that’s still accessible on his Facebook page)

The song went viral, and the complimentary texts started rolling in. Then Patrick Davis, nationally acclaimed songwriter and country recording artist, reached out The two South Carolina musicians became fast friends and talked for about two hours on their first phone call Davis continues to serve as a mentor and coach for Blake as he works out his own songwriting chops The two even performed together last August at a Gamecock kick-off event at Steel Hands Brewery

The rollercoaster of 2020 changed the trajectory of Blake’s life goals and passions At the beginning of the school year, he had been focused on playing golf as his ticket to college scholarships But Covid ruined the spring golf season, and right before an important June game where college scouts were scheduled to watch him play, he was exposed to the virus and had to pull out of the competition Then as soon as he recovered from Covid, he got mono and had to cancel a July tournament as well But Blake has no regrets: “As cheesy at it sounds, it was meant to be that way.”

Right before that fateful string of illnesses, Patrick Davis invited him to be the opening act for a run of upcoming shows “As soon as I did that, I fell in love with it It’s an interesting story because while I was falling in love with music, golf was going the opposite way for me ”

Today, Blake is a student at the University of South Carolina, majoring in business by day and performing by night often in country music showcases that he creates, produces, and hosts himself Meanwhile, his courses at USC are teaching him about the complexity of the music industry, specifically the relationships between artists, managers, promoters, and performance venues He’s been putting those lessons to use in a series of entrepreneurial ventures over the past couple of years that bring together up-and-coming songwriting talent from across the region