A positively inspired community service campaign launched
recently by Leadership San Benito puts music in the air and a
little pride in our heart.
A positively inspired community service campaign launched recently by Leadership San Benito puts music in the air and a little pride in our heart.
Call it news of note, but it was a Free Lance article published two years ago that first caught the attention of Jodie Marshall, catering sales manager at Ridgemark Golf and Country Club and a member of this year’s class at Leadership San Benito. When asked to come up with a community service project for the organization, Marshall recalled reading about a local fourth-grader who was trying to learn to play the flute but had only a pencil to practice with. (Just imagine how difficult it would be to hit B flat on your Dixon Ticonderoga No. 2.)
The fact is, at least half of the 300 or so fourth-graders who enroll in the Hollister School District’s beginning band program every year have no instrument to play. The school district owns only about 50 musical instruments, and older band students on free and reduced lunch get first dibs on the small collection of brass and woodwinds. The fourth-graders get pencils.
So Marshall suggested that Leadership San Benito collect instruments for the kids and donate them to the school district. Members of the leadership group have been making the rounds of local service clubs, explaining the need and asking for help. On Monday, Hollister Rotary chipped in $176. But so far the group hasn’t seen even a single instrument donated.
Here’s where you come in. Is there a gently used clarinet, flute, trombone or trumpet gathering dust somewhere at your house? There’s a child out there doing pointer, pointer, pinky, thumb on a pencil who would love to learn to coax real notes out of a real musical instrument.
If you have an instrument to donate, drop it off at any Hollister elementary school or call music teacher Susan Chizek at 637-3255 to arrange to have it picked up. If you prefer to make a monetary donation, write a check to Hollister School District Music Program and mail it to the Hollister School District office, 2690 Cienega Road, Hollister, CA 95023.
Today, we place so much emphasis on Academic Performance Index scores and the like that we sometimes forget the importance of music education. But study after study has shown that music education fosters creativity and self-discipline, and helps young people build critical-thinking and abstract-reasoning skills – all things that will improve chances for success in school and in life.
Studies also show direct links between musical training and better scores on those tests our kids take. According to a report by the College Entrance Examination Board, students who had participated in musical performance programs in high school scored higher on the SAT – 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math portion of the test – than students who did not.
These are all good reasons to get involved with this worthy campaign and help our young band students. But the real reason is that it’s simply time to retire those pencils so our kids can start making real music.
