Music 4 Life year-end report for Shoreline Schools

By David Endicott, President / CEO of Music4Life

During the 2014-15 school year, the Shoreline Schools Music4Life™ program delivered 16 ready-to-play musical instruments to Shoreline Public Schools for use by children in need. The total estimated retail value (before taxes) of these instruments was $9,695 or nearly $606 per instrument.

Some of these instruments came to Music4Life as “undesignated” by the donor for any one of our five participating school districts: Edmonds, Highline, Mukilteo, Seattle and Shoreline.

In other words, the donor told us to use them “wherever there is the greatest need,” and then were reassigned to Shoreline Public Schools. We used resources available from the Shoreline Schools Music4Life fund to repair all instruments at local shops that provide discounts to us, including the Music and Arts stores, Kennelly Keys Music, Hammond Ashley Violins in Issaquah and the Guitar Center in Seattle.

Also included among these musical instruments were some very special instruments, including a Bach Stradivarius trombone, now being played by a student at Shorecrest High School, and two cellos.

What this means is that the education of 16 students last year benefited from participation in instrumental music in Shoreline Public Schools. Yet, as you well know, the arts often are the first to go when school districts face declining budgets and levy failures.

Why is this important? Participation in instrumental music is not cake frosting or a marginally-important elective subject. Research now shows that students who participate in instrumental music activities tend to do better in math, science, history, literature, international languages, reading, writing, even in computer science and other academic disciplines, in addition to what they learn in terms of teamwork and self-discipline.

So Music4Life is just as much an “education program” as it is an “instrumental music program.” That is UNLESS students’ families cannot afford to get them a musical instrument. And in the current economy, many cannot even afford to rent an instrument.

We will continue to appeal to adults in the community to donate the used instruments stored in their garages and attics, and to help provide the financial resources to repair them. A copy of the Donor Form we use for this purpose is here. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm for Music4Life.

In addition, we have provided six ready-to-play musical instruments valued at $13,450 in September, October and November 2015. So we are off to a pretty fast start this school year, as well.