My Students

During the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Matt Lauer said that a university marching band goes through 1800 reeds in a single season. It feels like beginning band students at my Title I school use almost that many clarinet, saxophone, oboe & bassoon reeds - and their parents cannot always provide them.

The band students at my middle school in South Florida are diverse in every way, but one thing unites them - their dedication.

Every single day we have students staying after school to practice their instruments, even if they have to ride the city bus home. They work together while many other kids their age spend lots of time alone. They love music and are incredibly eager learners. Band can sometimes be an expensive venture, and school budgets are shrinking, but the lessons in character and discipline students take away from learning music are priceless.

My Project

After five years at my school and seeing some of my former students graduate high school, I know that participation in music has saved some of these kids' lives. Music sparks their imaginations. Membership in the band has inspired them to greater maturity and a greater sense of self worth. Middle school can be a tumultuous time for children, but students involved in the band always transition to high school with many friends and great memories, as well as musical skills. In our age of convenience, it can be difficult to teach children the value of hard, dedicated work. Learning music does that - it always has and it always will. It is both incredible and humbling to see students light up when they finally get a musical passage they've been practicing for some time, and see the result of their hard work. In band, children really have to earn their successes, in spite of so many circumstances, and through that they become better young people.

Donating the money to buy reeds for woodwind instruments seems like such a small thing.

However, in music as in life, the small things make all the difference. Your donation enables our children to make beautiful music, learn more about themselves and work together in a unique way. As Shakespeare said, "If music be the food of love, play on."