June Is “Music4Life Month” in King & Snohomish Counties

June is “Music4Life Month” say County Executives Dow Constantine and Dave Sommers, as well as the mayors and city councils of several cities in King and Snohomish Counties.

Music4Life™ is the Seattle-based non-profit that provides musical instruments to participating schools for students in need. The organization acquires “lovingly used” musical instruments from adults who no longer need them, gets them repaired and then provides them to public schools in Edmonds, Highline, Mukilteo, Seattle and Shoreline.

The non-profit program acquires used instruments from adults who understand that their highest and best use is to put them back into play. Music4Life also accepts donations to help pay for instrument repairs.

“Summer is when we have to focus on getting used musical instruments repaired and ready-to-play so that students this fall can start to use them as soon as they are enrolled,” says Music4Life President/COO David Endicot. 

“We’re very grateful to Dow Constantine, Dave Sommers and the mayors and councils of our participating communities for their support in drawing attention to this critical educational need.”

Proclamations declaring county and city support for the Music4Life initiative have been enacted by King County Executive Dow Constantine and Snohomish County Executive Dave Sommers, as well as by Mayors Luci Krakowiak, Burien; Matt Pina, Des Moines; Jonathan Chicquette, Normandy Park; Chris Roberts, Shoreline in King County and by Dave Earling, Edmonds in Snohomish County.

“The reason this is so important is because research shows that students who participate in instrumental music programs tend to do better in math, science, history, literature, computer science, international languages, reading, writing and other academic disciplines,” Endicott says. 

“This is in addition to what they learn in terms of teamwork and self-discipline. All this is true, unless their parents can’t afford to get them a musical instrument in the first place. And in today’s economy, many parents can’t even afford to rent a musical instrument. 

To this extent, Music4Life is just as much an ‘education program’ as it is a ‘music program.’”

One recent national report found that half of all public school students are from income-eligible families that qualify for participation in the Free-and-Reduced-Lunch program. The Puget Sound area is no exception.

“Our hope is that adults who know of Music4Life will donate their musical instruments to us now so we can get them repaired over the summertime,” Endicott says. “An instrument Donor Form must accompany the instrument and is available for downloading on our Website.”