DECATUR – Girls who play drums are in astonishingly short supply.
So when Bionca Neylon decided to sign up for band and had to choose an instrument, she followed her heart instead of the crowd, and she chose to be a drummer.
“I wanted something about school to be fun for me,” said Bionca, an eighth-grader at Stephen Decatur Middle School.
For many kids, band is their second family, the place they find their friends and express their creative side, but for a lot of kids in Decatur's public schools, buying or renting an instrument is too expensive for their family's budget.
Decatur schools' instrumental music program owes much of its existence to the Symphony Orchestra Guild of Decatur.
With about 75 percent of students classified as low-income, and musical instruments so expensive, a lot of children would not be able to learn an instrument without it.
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Robert Lark, who teaches band at Stephen Decatur, said most of his students would have to give up band if not for the loaner instruments. He made rebuilding the band his mission, and it's working.
“They had good ears, but they struggled with reading music,” he said.
One of his ideas was to offer extra chances to perform. Some are mandatory and some are optional, and he's pleased at the number of young musicians who participate in the optional performances. He started a jazz band and a pep band.
Marilyn Mertz, a member of the Symphony Guild board, said the instrument library really began with Hope Academy.
All the elementary schools had a few loaner instruments for kids who didn't have their own and couldn't afford to buy or rent one, but when Hope opened, the Symphony Guild gathered more than 40 instruments for kids there to use.
Music teacher Jim Walker came out of retirement to teach them to give the school more time to find a permanent teacher. The guild also provided a fund for keeping the instruments in good repair.
“Our goal is to provide economically deprived children the opportunity to learn to play an instrument,” Mertz said. “We're saving the instrumental music program in Decatur.”
Typically, rental of a musical instrument can be $40 or more a month, and buying an instrument, even used, is hundreds of dollars. Low-income families just can't afford to do that, and the guild didn't want those children to miss out on music.
The guild formed a partnership with the Decatur Public Schools Foundation and even provides a person to assist foundation Executive Director Zach Shields in keeping track of the instruments, the applications to use one and the repairs.
Parents or guardian must sign an agreement to see to it that the child takes care of the instrument, and children must be recommended by a classroom teacher and keep up their grades, practice assignments, rehearsals and performances. The music teacher can end the child's use of the instrument if the child is not fulfilling their responsibility.
Recently, the Amherst F. Hardy Foundation provided a grant to buy 54 new instruments for the library, which raised the total to about 300. Only low-income families are eligible to use the library, and Lark said if a child sticks with music into middle school and high school, and their families see that they're serious about it, they usually find a way to provide the child with their own instrument by then.
“Most years, they're all in demand,” Shields said. “In some years, one instrument is more in demand than another. I think we help provide good communications with the schools. We can manage the check-in and check-out process. People can donate to the foundation and receive benefits taxwise.
“The symphony guild is the driving force, and this wouldn't be possible without them.”
