Our school is extremely poor but has massive talent! Our string program is required for every single student in grades one through six and most 7th and 8th graders continue as an elective. We have over 600 string kids here in one building and every single one of them performs on stage at least once a year. Over 75% receive free or reduced lunch and 44% don't speak English as their first language. But oh they love music, especially our strings and do very well. Our district owns our own violins and rents them to our students for practically nothing to use. These kids would never be able to rent from a music store like most of the string students in the state.
We start in the first grade when research shows that learning to play a violin most benefits brain development. We continue to require strings for at least six years so these benefits can become permanent. Please help us continue to fulfill our mission!
But we have a problem with the smallest violins used for the first graders. They have been introduced to the violin on a pretend "box" violin, have learned how to make a "bunny" bow hold, and have played their first "Mississippi stop stop" rhythms on the E string. Now it is time to start sending them home.
We don't have any 1/8 bows left. All of the bows have fallen apart and we have nothing to replace them with. We get no money from our school or the district for the replacement of bows and haven't been able to raise money with so many of our families out of work.
I wish you could see the faces of these little sweet first graders the day they take their violins home. They are bursting with pride and so happy. They can hardly wait to play for their families. We want to send the violins home with these eager and deserving students. If you would help us buy a few bows we could make it happen. I want to buy sturdy fiberglass bows that don't break and last for many years. Thank you for your generosity!!
These kids have so many hardships and some are even homeless. Having possession (even if it is just a rental) of a beautiful violin that is their very own and the ability to make music is vital for some of our needy children and something they all deserve. Please help us get the youngest of our students off to a good start with decent bows that work properly and sound good. Thank You!
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