Music is the pride of our small rural community. Our ability to give back musically in the form of yearly concerts, pep rallies, parades, and an athletic band is very important, as we are able to enrich lives in ways only music is able.
Our district is just over 100 students, K-12, and many of our students are children of local ranch families who have been around for over 100 years – often attending the same school, growing up with the same families, taking over the family ranch, and having kids of their own.
This leads to an immense pride in who we are, as we live a tradition passed down from our father’s father. We can trace our family lines by walking through the school halls and seeing the familiar names of our great grandparents' graduation photos from the 1930s. Many of these people were part of the school music program and have sat where their great grandchildren now sit in my classroom.
My Project
Because of our small band, we rely on a few people to cover music that usually more people would cover. This is very true with a drum set, where one person does the job of four people or more. From the beginning of August to the end of February, our athletic band plays all of football, volleyball and basketball seasons and will travel across the state, as we often make district and divisional level sports events.
However, our drum heads are well over 5 years old and are literally beaten in.
Without them, we will be missing some very important musical voices from our athletic band and pep rally music.
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