Group helps school kids make music
RACHEL ADAMS, The Daily News, radams@bgdailynews.com
Published: November 9, 2006
The Bowling Green School District’s stringed music program received a boost this year as the local nonprofit Son Rhea Foundation donated 40 stringed instruments, enabling students to participate even if they can’t afford to purchase an instrument. At a Wednesday morning news conference at Dishman-McGinnis Elementary School, string students took a break from plucking ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ to applaud Son Rhea founder Tony Lindsey for his gift, valued at $4,800. City schools Superintendent Joe Tinius and Bill Scott, Western Kentucky University’s Baker professor of music, were also on hand to celebrate the gift. ’We’re very happy to be able to do this for you guys,’ Lindsey told the students, who answered with an enthusiastic ‘Yeah!’ when he asked if they liked the strings program. The Son Rhea Foundation, formed in 2000, uses proceeds from its annual Jambodians Holiday Bash to fund various fine-arts-related programs around the area, Lindsey said. He was approached by Hamp Moore, a school board member, earlier this year about the strings program, and an agreement was reached before the beginning of the school year. The strings program, which expanded to all five city elementary schools last year, is popular with students, Tinius said, but he noticed that some children didn’t have the means to purchase an instrument of their own. There were 48 children interested in using the school-owned instruments, so the school board purchased eight more. Those instruments will stay in the school system indefinitely, to be used by anyone who needs them. Programs such as the stringed music program, taught by WKU faculty and students, are important for children who may not receive accolades in sports or academics, Lindsey said. More than 225 fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students participate in the program, with 125 new fourth-graders joining this year, Scott said. In addition to furthering their musical education, students also earn self-discipline and responsibility, as they are required to practice, remember when lessons are, and care for their instrument. The most exciting thing for Scott, as a teacher, is to see the excitement on the children’s faces when they arrive for their lessons. ’They have a tendency to run into the room,’ he said. ‘You have to calm them down.’ When the program first started two years ago in two city elementary schools, Tinius found himself wondering what was going to happen.’ Personally, if you’d told me we’d have 225 students ... I was a bit doubtful that it would grow to that extent in two years,’ he said.’ The Jambodians Holiday Bash is scheduled for Dec. 27.