The Everett School District is joining with Music4Life to gather used instruments to increase music education in Everett elementary schools. Here’s a press release received today about the project and ways you can help…
Click to visit the donation page to give an instrument or cash donation.
“We’re delighted to launch this new partnership with Music4Life for our kids in the Everett Public Schools,” Superintendent Cohn says. “As we re-establish strings at our elementary schools and a full orchestra program in the district, and we continue to seek ways to make our remarkable band programs accessible to children whose families cannot afford instruments, Music4Life comes to our aid. The Music4Life folks will make it possible for many more of our students to gain the thrill of fully participating in a band or orchestra without worrying about where they will get an instrument. Bravo to David Endicott and the Music4Life team!”
Music4Life™ ( www.Music4Life.org ) is the non-profit that acquires “lovingly used” musical instruments from adults who no longer need them, gets them repaired and then provides them to participating public school districts for use by students who need them. Besides Everett Public Schools, Music4Life also operates programs supporting Edmonds, Highline, Mukilteo, Seattle and Shoreline Public Schools. The program acquires used instruments from adults who understand that their highest and best use is to put them back into play. With adequate financial resources, Music4Life also buys new musical instruments for school districts.
“The reason we do this,” Endicott says, “is because research now shows that students who participate in instrumental music activities tend to do better in math, science, history, literature, international languages, reading, writing, even in computer science, in addition to what it teaches in terms of teamwork and self-discipline. These benefits should be available to all students. But for families that continue to suffer during hard economic times, even renting a musical instrument can be prohibitive. Music4Life helps them across the very first barrier they encounter, the acquisition of the musical instrument in the first place.”
A new “Everett Music4Life Booster Club” is led by Deputy Superintendent Joyce Stewart and will be responsible for ongoing local fund raising to sustain the effort. Other booster club members include Jane Weber, Dr. Mark Valentine, Mark Nesse, Carol Wheeler, Jackson High School music teacher Lesley Moffat, North Middle School music teacher Emily Cheever, Kathryn Goforth and Georgia Lindquist.
Filling-out a Music4Life Donor Form is important in the process because it helps track the donated instruments through any analysis / repair process. Adults who have lovingly used musical instruments in their garages or attics are encouraged to provide them at any of several area music stores, including Kennelly Keys Music and Music & Arts stores. Music4Life also accepts financial resources to repair the used instruments or to buy new ones.
Music4Life™ is supported in part by grants from the Hazel Miller Foundation, First Choice Health; 4Culture (the former Seattle-King County Arts Commission); the Knossos Foundation; various local Rotary and Kiwanis clubs; the Highline Schools Foundation; Nina McLemore LLC; as well as by the law firm of Garvey Schubert Barer; Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Rafael Carrabba Violins, the Newspapers in Education Program of The Seattle Times, Cascade Symphony Orchestra, the Edmonds Center for the Arts, Kennelly Keys Music stores, Music & Arts stores, Hammond Ashley Violins in Issaquah, the Guitar Center stores, Randy Oxford Entertainment, Donn Bennett Drums, Emerald City Guitars and others.
November 10, 2016
Everett, Everett Schools