LAKE STEVENS — In his downstairs woodworking shop, Larry Whatley repairs what might be called the nicks and bruises for orchestra instruments used by elementary and middle school students.
There are strings that need to be replaced and bridges, which support the strings, that are too high or too low.
It’s follow up work that he, as one of the volunteers for the Mukilteo chapter of Music4Life, has done this summer. The group provides band and orchestra instruments for students whose families can’t afford them. Their work includes collecting donated instruments, getting them repaired, and, in some cases raising money to buy additional instruments.
Earlier this summer, Whatley met with Robin Enders, director of orchestras at Mukilteo’s Explorer Middle School and four elementary schools. Enders and Whatley examined about 40 of the district’s stringed instruments, looking to see what repairs might be needed before the new school year begins.
“On several afternoons, Robin and I would go through entire inventory,” he said. “She would make a couple notes on it and I would know to replace a string that didn’t sound well and would have given the kids trouble,” he said.
Many of the repairs could be made on the spot. But he brought three instruments to his home in Lake Stevens to work on, projects such as reapplying varnish or replacing bridges. The structures support the strings and in the most simple terms, help the strings produce music. “The only serious one was the broken-necked cello,” he said. “It will go back to Explorer this fall.”
Whatley’s repair work is just some of tasks that six volunteers of Mukilteo’s Music4Life now undertake. Cyndi Thomsen, the chapter president, said the organization is working to build a 12-member team of volunteers.
That’s because of how quickly demand for musical instruments is growing. Last fall, the group had 17 instruments that were donated, repaired and in working order by October, she said. In November, the group got a phone call from the school district telling of the need for five more instruments — two violas, two violins and one flute.
“Those happen to be the most popular instruments,” Thomsen said. “Fortunately, we had some money in the bank. Then the group received a $500 donation, “so we could have that money to help make sure the kids were taken care of,” she said.
The group pays for some donated band and orchestra instruments to be repaired by local music stores.
Thomsen said she hopes to provide instruments for at least 30 students during the upcoming school year and raise $10,000.
“If you don’t have enough money for food at home, having a musical instrument is something you would never dream of,” she said.
Not content just with increasing the group’s corps of volunteers and setting a $10,000 fund raising goal, Thomsen said it’s time to start thinking about adding one more needed service,:providing summer music lessons to students who otherwise couldn’t get them.
The Mukilteo Music4Life group is an outgrowth of an organization founded by David Endicott in Seattle . The group’s first expansion into Snohomish County occurred in the Edmonds School District .
In Mukilteo, the idea for donating musical instruments started with the city’s Youth Advisory Committee to help the school district’s elementary music program, called Play it Forward. In the spring of 2014, the Music4Life chapter was launched in Mukilteo.
Last year, the group was able to provide a performance-level Bach Stradivarius trumpet to Stephanie Adee, then a Mariner High School freshman. “I got to present it to her at a concert at Harbour Pointe Golf Course,” Thomsen said. “She was near tears.”
Although Thomsen said some people may question the need for this program in the Mukilteo School District, about half the students qualify for the free- or reduced-price lunch program.
“My gut tells me that there’s a lot more kids out there we need to help,” she said. The program also allows teachers to invite more students to join band and orchestra classes. “The teachers are allowed to do what the do best when they have a program like this to support them,” she said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.
How to help
Music4Life seeks musical instruments from adults who no longer need them. The nonprofit has them fully repaired and ready to play, then gives them to participating public school districts for use by children from low-income families. More info: 425-330-4614. More information on the Mukilteo Music4Life chapter is available online at www.music4life.org/mukilteo . The online fund raising site is: mukilteomusic4life.mydagsite.com.
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