Keeping Things in Perspective
The following notice appeared on the Music4Life™ Homepage as of
mid-May:
"Feeding people and other emergencies during the current coronavirus health crisis are of compelling importance. We recommend supporting Northwest Harvest and Harvest Against Hunger (formerly Rotary First Harvest) .
We ask everyone to dig a little deeper to support them. Eventually, we expect to get through this mess. Once on the other side of it, we’re certain that the need by our kids for ready-to-play musical instruments will be just as important as it ever has been."
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Total Instruments Delivered
Schools remain closed, as do nearly all of our musical instrument repair
shops. This means that Music4Life has delivered 224 donated and repaired full-sized musical instruments since
Sept. 1st to our ten public school districts for use by students qualifying
for free or reduced cost school meals. The total "fair market value" of
these 224 instruments and related materials is $127,909. This is 81 percent
of last year’s total. All instrument values are according to our
independent third-party vendor-experts.
Our Ten Programs Continue Operations
The ten school district-based Programs of Music4Life are operated in-part by ten booster
clubs, each comprised of local leaders and dedicated to its
own public school district. So the Highline Music4Life Booster Club serves Highline Public
Schools. The Everett Music4Life Booster Club
serves Everett Public Schools. And so forth. To varying
degrees each of these ten booster clubs continues to
prepare for that time when we emerge from the coronavirus
health emergency and can once again repair and deliver
ready-to-play musical instruments to our participating
public school districts for use by the students who most
need them.
Schools and Most Vendors Closed
All of our schools remain closed and are preparing for the fall term.
Similarly, all of our preferred vendor repair stores are closed except
Kennelly Keys Music is accepting instrument drop-offs at their Lynnwood
store. Music4Life encourages instrument donors to be on the
lookout for used instruments in their garages or attics during their
quarantine downtime and hold them for delivery when stores can re-open.
New Music4Life Poster Is Available
We try to make it as convenient as possible for people to donate their "lovingly used" musical instruments to Music4Life. A new poster promoting drop-off points in the community is now available. It's intended for display in store windows, such as businesses, chambers of commerce, non-profit organizations and others willing to accept instrument donations. This example can be changed to fit your community’s needs.
Booster Club Feature: Everett
(Editor's Note: We begin featuring the work of one of our various school district-based booster clubs with this edition.)
The Music4Life booster club supporting Everett Public Schools continues its monthly meetings even during this quarantine period. Ably led by President Jane Webber, other members of the Everett Music4Life Booster Club include (by alpha) Carmen Boggs; Rick Bowen; Emily Cheever (Sup's rep); Lois Craig; Dr. Mark Valentine; Carol Wheeler; Nicole Whiteley (replacing Emily); Mark Wilder; and Jeanne Willard. Special mention is reserved for Georgia Lindquist, who has served as scribe and inventory chief since the beginning of the Everett Program and is retiring from Everett P.S. Normally we'd include a group photo, but ZOOM prevents that for now. MANY THANKS to all our Everett friends!
Gifts in Memory of (friends)
Donations honoring the service or memory of individuals you know may be made online or by credit card. Any size donation is welcome.