Total Instruments Delivered
Music4Life™ has delivered 1,629 ready-to-play musical instruments valued at $124,150 to its 11 participating public school districts since Sept. 1, 2022. All instrument values are after repairs are completed and 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.
Blues ‘n Brews Set for August 26th
The 12th annual Poverty Bay Blues ‘n Brews Festival is set for Saturday, August 26th, at the Des Moines Beach Park. The event opens at 11 a.m. and features four prominent blues bands during the day, a dozen or so local craft breweries, ciders & wines and a variety of fine foods for purchase. The price of admission gets you tokens you can redeem for all of the brews and food. This is a honkin’ good time!! You must be 21 to enter and no pets are allowed.
Alaska Airlines is providing Highline Music4Life with two complimentary round-trip tickets anywhere they fly (seat value is $1,250 each) as benefits for a raffle that will be limited to the first 100 raffle ticket buyers. So you’ve got one-in-a-hundred chances to win; two-in-a-hundred if you’re a couple. A HECK of a lot better odds than the lottery! Limited to the first 100 raffle ticket buyers at $50 each ticket.
Adieu to Long-Time Treasurer
Having served two separate terms for nearly half of our entire 17-years of existence, Gary M. Ryno has decided to step-away as our volunteer Music4Life Treasurer and Governing Board Member. A seasoned finance veteran nearly all his professional life, Gary had been a senior-level executive of Seattle Trust, Sumitomo Bank, Asia-Europe-Americas Bank and others. It’s hard to know how to thank Gary enough for all his help and guidance.
So, we’re now in search of a new volunteer treasurer. Let us know if you have ideas to discuss.
Ukulele Fest Held in Everett
An inaugural "Ukulele Festival" was held in May at the Everett Civic Auditorium that featured beginning music student groups.
Our abundant congratulations to Everett music teacher Emily Cheever, Everett Chapter President Jane Webber and the rest of the event’s organizers. Special thanks go to Joyce Yamane & Steve Waite of the Kazuo & Mary Yamane Foundation for buying 78 of the ukuleles used that evening!
Lamar Billboards Promote Des Moines Event
Be on the lookout for outdoor advertising supporting the Poverty Bay Blues ‘n Brews Festival in Des Moines that are provided by Lamar Advertising. Lamar is the national agency that acquired Clear Channel a few years ago, the successor itself to Ackerly Communications. For several years Lamar and Clear Channel before it have provided free outdoor advertising to support events from which Music4Life is a primary beneficiary. Many thanks to Lamar for its continuing work on our behalf.
Fred Meyer Helps
In case you weren’t aware, Fred Meyer and other retailers in the area provide financial support to Music4Life at no extra charge to you. As part of their "good will" efforts, Freddy’s and others provide us a part of your purchase price every time you shop there. Freddy’s support is limited to organizations involved with youth development, hunger relief, and community services in Washington. All you need do is sign-up on Freddy's charitable giving site and select "Music4Life" as your desired beneficiary. Everything else is automatic..
Large Increase in Delivered Instruments
In case you were wondering, Music4Life experienced a rather large increase in the number of delivered instruments this year. In past years we’ve been able to provide about 250-300 ready-to-play musical instruments, everything from piccolos to pianos. As you can see from the first article in this newsletter, that has gone up to more than 1,600 instruments.
The reason: The Governing Board decided we should start counting recorders (the little flute-light instrument that sticks straight out of the mouth) that are provided to 3rd and 4th graders to play with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at Benaroya Hall. We provided 1,375 recorders to Highline students for this purpose. The basic policy reasoning is that recorders are also entry-level instruments that start a student on the road to Music4Life and, thus, should be counted. Just thought you should know this for clarification.
Why We Use Two Metrics for Measuring Success
Music4Life has always used two metrics for determining our success:
1) The number of delivered musical instruments; and
2) The fair market value of each instrument.
Here’s why. A piccolo and a piano both count as one musical instrument each. But their values are likely to be vastly different, especially if the piano is a baby grand or a grand. As a "recovering tuba" player, it’s not likely I’ll know about the values of a violin, a bassoon or a clarinet. So we leave that decision to our preferred vendors. We ask them to tell us what they’d sell the repaired instrument for if they put it on their shelf for purchase by the public. Month-to-month, we do our best to see to it that instrument values are delivered to participating public school districts based on the relative financial productivity of their Chapter teams. As it works out, one of our Chapters with the highest financial productivity (Highline) is also working for the school district where the need is greatest.
How We Know What Instruments Are Needed
Every year at this time we ask our participating public school district representatives to tell us the specific kinds of instruments they need during the coming year. Some school districts don’t have orchestras, so strings are not needed. For others, there may be a need for more trumpets — or violins — or clarinets, etc. A list of about three dozen instruments is provided to each. This is one tool that helps us provide instruments that school districts say they need. These "Instrument Needs Surveys" will be going out very soon.
Annual Report Now Available
The Music4Life Annual Report is now available on our website. It addresses activities during our two most recent years and reports our successes and our shepherding of your resources. (The current fiscal year doesn’t end until August 31st.) Contact us if you have questions.
