Total Instruments Delivered Music4Life™ has made a significant increase in the number and value of instruments delivered to its 11 participating public school districts since our last report. As of this writing, we have delivered 280 donated and repaired full-sized musical instruments to our school districts (an increase from the 159 instruments previously reported). For use by students of income-qualified families, the "fair market value" of these 280 instruments and related materials is $129,832. All instrument values are according to our independent third-party vendor-experts. Just one sign that we may be emerging from the pandemic, these instruments provided in just 10 months represent a 17 percent increase of all instruments delivered during the entire previous year.
2021 "Blues 'n Brews Festival" Returns Even a pandemic can't keep the Des Moines / Normandy Park Rotary Club down as the annual "Poverty Bay Blues 'n Brews Festival" returns on August 28th. The Saturday event features four stellar blues bands and lots of local craft beers, wine and all the food you can possibly eat at the Des Moines Beach Park starting at noon (ends at 8 pm). It's always a real happening! Advance tickets can be purchased online at https://www.DrinkToMusic.org. Highline Music4Life is a primary beneficiary of this event. Adults only, of course.
Ukuleles to Highline Public Schools One reason for this rather astonishing increase is the donation of 60 ukuleles to the Highline School District. Two Highline middle school teachers each have received 30 ukuleles for their classes beginning this fall. They are the gift of the Yamane Family Foundation and an example of how Music4Life can purchase new instruments for school districts when a donor wishes to fund them. Otherwise, we are nearly completely dependent on the instruments that people have in their garages, attics or closets and decide to put back into play. We're very grateful to both types on donations. You'll be hearing more about the Highline ukuleles in a few months.
Directed Donations Are Now Possible
One improvement in our Website is that it's now possible to direct your instrument or financial donation to the public school district of your choice. So if you live and work in Shoreline but attended school in Auburn, you can more easily direct your donation as you wish. Our First Rule is to honor the donor’s wishes. This means you can donate to any of our eleven participating public school district programs or to the Music4Life parent organization "for use wherever there's the greatest need," just as you wish.
Lamar Advertising Renews Sponsorship
Music4Life
has had a long relationship with
Lamar Advertising
(the billboard company) and its predecessors in the Seattle-Tacoma area,
Clear Channel and Ackerley Communications. Lamar recently renewed its
sponsorship by providing space-available billboards to support the
promotional efforts of local events, such as the August 28th "Blues 'n
Brews Festival" in
Des Moines. Lamar General Manager in the Seattle office Brendon Smith says other billboards may be available to support other events from which Music4Life benefits. Many thanks to Lamar and Brendon!
Folk Harp Is Available
Instrument donor Jan Obrien is providing this Dusty Strings folk harp to one of our participating public school districts. She says it's in excellent condition, "just needs some strings and tuning." We have every instrument professionally inspected and repaired, if possible, before delivering anything to a school district. First come / first served! Many thanks, Jan.
SO-O-O Many Copy-Cats!
Imitation is the highest form of flattery, or so they say. We started Music4Life in 2007, which included the creation of the name. Since then, apparently, many others have thought to themselves, "what a clever name!" The usual confusion is with "Music for Life" (one is a religious organization and another is a piano instructor). There’s a "Music4Life" now that's a music school. There's a dot-com that has developed an evidence-based mood formula with foundations in neuroscience, psychology and music therapy principles. And others too numerous to mention. We didn't have a lot of financial resources at the beginning, so we couldn't buy all the other names that might be conflicting, including the dot-com's and dot-biz's, etc. The point is that there is only one non-profit organization named "www.Music4Life.org" It's a registered trademark that cannot be copied. So, if you want to find us on the Internet, for whatever reason, please be sure to enter the right URL.
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.
A gift in memory of David Ramsett, Ph.D, has been made by his wife Maureen Ramsett of The Villages, Florida.
A gift in memory of David Ramsett, Ph.D, has been made by Marla Rude Knabel of The Villages, Florida.
