At least for the first time three decades, Lancaster School District students returned for a new school year with nor broken instruments in their music rooms, thanks to a collaborative effort of the districtinstrument store Menchey Music and Lancaster non-profit Music for Everyone.
Michael chosena veteran of the of the school district Music department since 1991, activatedid he he can not We remember a school year that started with zero broken instruments.
“For years and years, one of our biggest challenges has been to provide instruments to students who want to play instruments,” he says chosenthat started in the district s music teacher and now works as a of the district cocoordinator of Music, Art, Humanities and 21St Skills of the century. “As a district with many families suffering from poverty and such, many of the families do not have the financial capacity to buy or rent a quality instrument.“
According to Music for Everyone director of development Deb Rohrer, 272 SDoL instruments were repaired by Menchey Music or replaced at a total cost of $36,613, provided by donor funds. Teachers observe instruments in need of repair; Menchey collects all the instruments for evaluation and repair, and then Music for Everyone writes the check. Menchey is based in Hanover, but has a location on Manheim Pike in Manheim Township.
chosen estimationd that the partnership saves the school district several thousand dollars per year. The instructmind The repair program, which first began with a pilot program in the School District of Columbia in 2017, grew out of increased demands for funds to fix instruments., EASY Deputy Executive Director Brendan Stengle said.
“We started seeing the same requests over and over again for repairs, and we started thinking, ‘Listen, they give us all this stuff, it makes sense, and it’s the most responsible for repairing these instruments.‘ “ Stem saidid By phone “We he can not just do the “car philanthropy” of “Here’s some stuff.” — see you later, good luck!’ As responsible stewards of people who invest in music for Everyone, we want to make sure that our reinvestment goes back into the community and into the schools, that these instruments are taken care of.”
Both Rohrer and Stengle are healthyid is difficult to estimate the need each course for instrument repairs, that varies by school and music department. Turned onwhat an instrument has been catalogued, repaired and returned to each school, Stengle noted that the instrument is it is rarely a problem again.
“The first time we did Columbia, they sent us 80-Something instruments. The rear times, is been five or more instruments” explains Stengle. “Manheim Central – They had so many instruments, I was amazed at all the broken instruments sitting on the shelf. Tthe first year, I think we did about 250;second year, we had, I like,10. Once you get past that initial review, is more manageable we are fix a problem that has existed for decades more or less one fhe to bite“
Rohrer says it’s important to a child’s musical education to avoid the natural deterrent of starting with a bad-sounding or battered instrument. As the school year continues, Music for Everyone will once again launch its after-school program for all children in Lancaster County Schools, including home school students. Stengle says he is happy with the work he does EASY has done though really recognize the rise providing music for everyone.
“There is still a lot of work to be done and a lot of need in our music programs,” Stengle says. “This is evidenced for our grant programs – we were able to give $80,000 last year, it made us feel really good, it was very exciting… but we received over $300,000 in questions, so we had to make some tough decisions. so yes we are happy though we are too nose to the grindstone, because there is A lot of work to do.”
