This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
"People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least while the music lasts."-Paul Hindemith
Our band program is made up of over seventy students grades 5-12. Most of our kids will grow up together and go to school together from Kindergarten through graduation. Our band is like a big family.
Our band program is made up of two groups: 5th and 6th grade beginning bands and the high school band grades 7-12.
The school provides all band instruments, as well as supplies such as reeds and valve oil to all students involved in the band program at no cost to the students. Most of our students could not afford to be in band if this policy was not in place. Providing all instruments and supplies puts quite a strain on our limited school budget and at times materials we just have to wait for resources.
Despite the limited resources, the Eden Bulldog Band is successful and does their best with what they have. The students have creative ways to help make things work and even give love offerings whenever they do get something from the supply cabinet. The band is made up of a group of students who truly love making music and work extremely hard every day despite their circumstances.
My Project
For those of you who aren't familiar with reed instruments, students who play the clarinet or saxophone use a reed to produce the sound on their instrument. A reed is a small piece of wood that is placed on their mouthpiece. The reeds need replacing periodically due to the wood wearing out from the saliva in the mouth.
My project requests over 100 reeds for my clarinet and saxophone players in grades 5-12. Reeds cost at least $3.50 a piece. At that cost many of my students would not be able to play a reed instrument if required to furnish their own. With a very small supply budget that needs to furnish all instrument accessories for over 70 students, I have to be very selective in handing out reeds. Unfortunately, this means at times students are playing on a reed that really needs to be replaced, which has a negative impact on their playing. The reeds I have requested would be distributed to the students as needed so they can play their instruments to the best of their ability.
These reeds would help ease the strain on my supply budget and prevent me from having to charge a band fee for my students.
All students will be able to get a new reed when they need one instead of keeping a one that needs to be replaced because our supply is low.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mrs. Lozano and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.