Let's Get the BAND Together!

Funded Sep 22, 2024

This is my very first DonorsChoose project and I am ever so grateful to each of you for contributing to it! The West Middle School Band is made up of students in grades 6-8 in Brockton, Massachusetts. These band students are very hard workers, and I am proud of them each and every day. Your generosity has made it possible for lots of success to occur in our Band when it otherwise would have been halted. I can't describe enough how essential it has been for my students to be able to get reeds when needed. Oftentimes they are playing on very old and/or chipped/broken reeds because it has been impossible for them to get to the store or order them. I'm so thrilled with my ability to answer 'yes' to "Mrs. May, do you have a reed?" when a student needs one for their lesson or during Band.

My brass players are benefitting daily from the superior valve oil and slide oil I have been able to provide them. Many of them have low quality valve/slide oil, or none at all, and so the ability to give them Blue Juice (a very high quality valve oil for trumpets, euphonium, and tuba) and Slide-o-Mix (a very high quality slide oil for trombones) is very exciting for me. I have a small caddy on stage where students know they can go to get it when needed.

Lastly, my percussionists! The look on their faces when I showed them the new stick bag with a new pair of timpani mallets, hard xylophone mallets, yarn mallets, AND drumsticks – wow! They were so excited. We had not had new percussion equipment in quite some time and so they were thrilled. When the triangle beaters came in and we got to experiment with how each different triangle beater made the triangle sound different, it opened up a whole new world of sounds. They are taking care of all their new equipment and treating it with pride.

I feel so fortunate to be able to provide all my students with these materials to ensure they are in a successful position to create meaningful music together. This would not have been possible without you and your caring spirit and generosity. Something I hope to do in the future is a set of tuners and microphones for the wind players so we can have them on each stand. Students would then see their pitch tendencies in real time and work on their intonation skills. Thank you, again, for all your support and generosity! It is appreciated more than you know!”

With gratitude,

Mrs. May