Total Instruments Delivered
Music4Life™ has delivered 1,599 ready-to-play musical instruments valued at $102,750 to its 11 participating public school districts since Sept. 1, 2022. All instrument values are estimated by our independent third-party vendor-experts. Intended for use by the students of income-qualified families, each instrument must be returned when the student leaves the school district (due to graduation, family moves to another school district, etc.) so another student can benefit from its use.
Budget Cutbacks in Public Education
One of the unfortunate effects of the pandemic has been declining public school enrollments. A result is cuts in school district budgets due to declining state support. And as most of us have come to know, “the arts are the first to go.” Alas, too many of these are elementary school programs, the age at which most kids become at-risk and need something meaningful to do with their time. Something such as instrumental music activities.
Music4Life is discussing declining budgets with the Washington Music Educators Association (WMEA) and other high level organizations. Part of the answer may lie with greater awareness of the real importance of all arts in the fundamental education guaranteed by the state constitution. So write to your local newspaper. Write to your state representative and state senator. No matter what happens, there will still be students of families in-need who cannot afford musical instruments. So Music4Life will continue soldiering-on to meet this need.
SnoCo Arts Renews Its Support
The Snohomish County Arts Commission has renewed its annual support for Music4Life. The SnoCo Arts grant of $3,000 is limited to support students in our participating Everett, Edmonds, Marysville and Northshore Schools programs, just as the King County award supports programs there. Other public school districts are welcome to join us, as well. As always, our ABUNDANT THANKS to SnoCo Arts for its ongoing financial support and enthusiasm for the work of Music4Life!
The POWER of Instrumental Music
The power of instrumental music was on display in Everett on Monday evening, May 15th, as students began their journey into the wonderful world of music by playing ukuleles, 78 of which were donated by the Kazuo & Mary Yamane Foundation. On hand for the "Music4Life Ukulele Fest" were Joyce Yamane and husband Steve Waite. Joyce points out that the ukulele is a terrific beginner's instrument from which many graduate to the trumpets, saxophones, violins, bassoons and other musical instruments of the band and orchestra world. Many thanks to Joyce and Steve for making the event possible!
AmazonSmile Is Cancelled
In case you hadn’t noticed, Amazon has cancelled its AmazonSmile program. The program had been designed to provide a portion of each purchase at no additional cost to the buyer and was a significant potential source of revenue for qualified non-profit activities such as Music4Life. No explanation was available. We have noticed, however that very similar programs are available at QFC and Fred Meyer. There’s no extra cost to you! All you have to do is sign up and designate Music4Life as your beneficiary.
Student Use Agreement to School Rep’s
One way to increase the impact of Music4Life instruments provided to students has been to assure that the instruments remain in the school districts after the student no longer uses them (such as after graduation or the family moves out of the school district). Students who get our ready-to-play instruments, therefore, are told that each instrument is a “loaner.” S/He’s welcome to use it as long as it’s playable and s/he remains in the school district. After that, the instrument needs to be returned to the school district so another student who needs it can benefit from its use. The updated Student Use Agreement will e-distributed to all participating school districts beginning with the new school year on September 1st.
