Music4Life has been an Official Rotary District 5030 Project for the past two years and an Official Rotary District Project that has been renewed five previous times since becoming an Official Rotary district Project in 2010. From its founding in 2007, the purpose of Music4Life has been to provide donated-and-repaired musical instruments at no charge for use by the students of families in-need. This is accomplished thru local Chapters that are public school district-based.
In that time, Music4Life has grown to serve 11 Puget Sound area public school districts and has provided many thousands of ready-to-play musical instruments for use by local students. Music4Life started as a service benefiting students in Seattle Public Schools and has since added public school districts serving Highline, Shoreline, Edmonds, Everett, Northshore, Bremerton, Auburn, Kent, Marysville and Riverview (students in the Duvall / Carnation area) Public Schools.
What has that meant to students in the area? Let’s let music teacher Leslie Moffat of Everett Public Schools tell us.
- “Thank you SO much for facilitating this in lightning-speed time! I wish you could have been here to see this young girl’s face … and now she will be able to be in band next year. There are no words to describe the look on her face as tears of joy ran down her cheek upon realizing what this meant for her. Your hearts would have been full of joy if you knew just how important this is to her. I know none of us go into music teaching for the financial rewards – it’s moments like this that make it all worthwhile.
- “And the added bonus of what you are doing is that it doesn’t stop with her…this instrument will serve many students over the course of its lifetime. The extent of your generosity goes way beyond what you will ever know. So thank you for your tireless efforts and endless generosity as ambassadors for Music4Life. I’m your biggest fan!”
And then there’s this response from the new Superintendent of Highline Public Schools, Ivan Duran, Ed.D.:
- “I recently visited a school that had many of the instruments donated by Music4Life and I learned all the spots for band had been filled at the school. Music4Life is instrumental in ensuring every student who is interested in playing an instrument has one to play.”
Music4Life has been actively supported by the Rotary Clubs of Auburn, Burien-White Center, Des Moines/Normandy Park, Duvall, Edmonds, Kent, Kent Sunrise, Magnolia, Mill Creek, Puget Sound Passport, Seattle, Shoreline and West Seattle and is available for support by any other Rotary Clubs in this District or elsewhere. About 60 Rotarians in those clubs help with our work.
In striving to implement our original and continuing vision of being able to benefit the students of families in-need “wherever there’s a Rotary club,” Music4Life has also received the financial support and encouragement of Rotary clubs outside of District 5030 in Everett, Marysville and Bremerton. With the help of retired Everett Superintendent Gary Cohn (also State Superintendent of the Year in 2017 and 2022-23 President-Elect of the Rotary Club of Kirkland) we are looking to expand further into public school districts serving students in East King County and beyond. Just this week Dr. Fred Hoffer, President-Elect of Bainbridge Island Rotary, has offered his help in adding Bainbridge Island Public Schools.
Music4Life has also received the non-financial support and enjoys the encouragement of other Rotary clubs, as wells as Kiwanis, Lions, Soroptimist and other clubs, corporations, foundations and many individuals who share our Rotary dedication to community service.
