When Jon Herath had to turn away six students last year who wanted to learn music because they could not afford to rent instruments and he didn't have any to spare, the Lakewood School band teacher knew the time had come to try something new.
"It is never easy to turn down a kid," he said. "Getting more kids into our program is my #1 goal - both for music reasons and academic reasons. I decided right then that I was going to apply for the grant."
The grant he referenced was through the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation, which donates both new and refurbished instruments to school music programs that lack the resources to keep up with equipment loss due to attrition, depreciation and wear, and to accommodate students on waiting lists or who have to share instruments. The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation was inspired by the acclaimed motion picture, "Mr. Holland's Opus," the story of the profound effect a dedicated music teacher had on generations of students. The film's composer, Michael Kamen, started the foundation in 1996 as his commitment to the future of music education.
Mr. Herath and his Lakewood colleague, Orchestra Teacher Jennifer O'Donnell, share that commitment to music education. Their diligence paid off when learning last week that the school had won an astounding 25 new and refurbished instruments, valued at nearly $27,000. The supply includes everything from flutes to violas to trombones.
The day they got the great news was one of extreme lows and highs. Mr. Herath and his principal, Tim Loversky, learned about the major grant award a few hours after the school went on lock-down due to a shooting directly across the street. The award letter told them that the foundation "realizes the challenges schools and districts face to continue offering music and applauds your efforts to keep music alive at this school."
"It's been pretty emotional," Mr. Herath said.
The infusion of instruments later this year to the high-poverty school serving grades 5 and 6 will come at a perfect time. Over the past few years, Lakewood had found itself with a "good problem." The faculty's active recruiting of new music students, along with the positive reaction of current students, led to a rapidly growing program. A tradition was born, in which Lakewood music students' younger siblings and cousins would enroll in the program "because they wanted to do what their big brother or sister did."
Eventually, more than 50% of the student population had opted to enroll in the music program, with still others being turned away because they couldn't afford to rent instruments and the school had run out.
"More and more students were signing up," O'Donnell said. "Our instruments just couldn't keep up."
The instruments from the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation will dramatically improve both the quantity and the quality of the Lakewood instrument library. In a well-intended effort to allow as many students as possible to participate in the program, sometimes the teachers were forced to loan them instruments in poor condition - dented, cracked, and warped beyond repair.
"We just made it work, whatever we had to do for the kids," Ms. O'Donnell said. "Now some of the instruments that probably should be in the garbage can finally be replaced."
Her desire to involve students in music, especially the high-risk population at Lakewood, stems partly from the abundant research that connects music studies with improved academic performance.
"We don't just teach them how to play the right notes," she said. "We teach them life skills like problem-solving, patience, confidence, and self-discipline."
The School Board will honor Mr. Herath and Ms. O'Donnell at the next Board meeting, which is 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13, 2012, in the PDC at Westfield Community School. As the district's budget will continue to remain very tight for the foreseeable future, Lakewood provides an excellent example of out-of-the-box fundraising to other faculty and staff across D300.
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