Members Audiopile Posted March 3, 2014 Members Share Posted March 3, 2014 An advocate for our local school district's band program hit me up for donations of band instruments. It seems the school's band instrument inventory is really lame... but then I dunno what as the yearly cost per student for public education at that school is seemingly at a level that would support private education in a new house for every student attending... so I don't know what they're spending their money on... seems like crazy levels of funding for a system that's cronically "under funded" for academics and arts basically all the time... but... anyway:I got to thinking: Ok... I have a Selmer MK VI tenor saxophone in the closet, that I'll likely never play again... and I could pay $1K+ to have it re-padded and then donate it to the school... to have it used like they got it for free... if anyone ever decided it struck their fancy to take it off the school band instrument shelf before the pads got crunchy again. But really: Would a classy old sax or trumpet or flute serve any purpose? Or should I donate a smart phone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cappttenron Posted March 3, 2014 Members Share Posted March 3, 2014 Once I donated a nice roland keyboard to a DC school. Then I was over there teaching and found 3 brand new keyboards setting in the music room closet. I wish I had donated it to someone that really needed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Unalaska Posted March 3, 2014 Members Share Posted March 3, 2014 Sell the mark IV and buy 10 saxophones! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author Craig Vecchione Posted March 5, 2014 CMS Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Audiopile wrote: An advocate for our local school district's band program hit me up for donations of band instruments. It seems the school's band instrument inventory is really lame... but then I dunno what as the yearly cost per student for public education at that school is seemingly at a level that would support private education in a new house for every student attending... so I don't know what they're spending their money on... I dunno either, but I bet the football team has decent gear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dogoth Posted March 5, 2014 Members Share Posted March 5, 2014 Craig Vecchione wrote:Audiopile wrote: I don't know what they're spending their money on... I dunno either, but I bet the football team has decent gear.Ouch! you hit that nail HARD :-). What you say is sad but true.It seems that donating gear to schools is a tough call. When my daughter was in Elementry school, I proposed donating a bunch of PAR 64 cans to her school (My theatre was replacing them all with parnel fixtures and they didn't want them anymore). The rub was that they would have had to run a fair amount of power to them. Being the school district, getting anything like electrical work done rivals a hospital job in cost. It just wasn't worth their while.Nearly the same time period I attended an "open house" kind of thing with my daughter where there were VENDORS selling everything from sports safety equipment to overpriced vitamin drinks. I was disgusted with the shamless marketing going on and snubed the vendors, walked into the office and wrote a check for $50 to the music department. That way I knew my money was being spent on my kid and not lining sombody elses pocket.Today's schools have changed a lot (and IMO NOT for the better) from the ones I attended. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Audiopile Posted March 5, 2014 Author Members Share Posted March 5, 2014 Craig Vecchione wrote:Audiopile wrote: An advocate for our local school district's band program hit me up for donations of band instruments. It seems the school's band instrument inventory is really lame... but then I dunno what as the yearly cost per student for public education at that school is seemingly at a level that would support private education in a new house for every student attending... so I don't know what they're spending their money on... I dunno either, but I bet the football team has decent gear.ouch... geeze I could spew and spew. Craig: you cut to the crux of my post and thoughts. The school band is likely simply a support mechanism for the school's pep band, which is likely simply a support for the sporting program... otherwise the school band would have gone the way of the school orchestra... which was dropped (locally) 40+ years ago. Not that I'm anti school sports, but calling it the way it is, is likely beyond adult supervision... otherwise how could a public education cost >$27K per year per student in "some schools districts" but need to go begging for donated drum sticks for the school's drummer (singular drummer).? And even then... would donating to the cause be facilitating propping up somebody's ideal for keeping some 1930's vintage program "alive"... when the next generation and their peers are following their smart phones from classroom to classroom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pro Sound Guy Posted March 8, 2014 Members Share Posted March 8, 2014 That Selmer is going for 6500.00Think twice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wesg Posted March 9, 2014 Members Share Posted March 9, 2014 I relied last week, but my post went AWOL. To make a very long post short, if you are willing to donate the Mk VI....you should sell it to a local pro and take the proceeds to buy a Yamaha YTS-23 and two YAS-23s. And pad savers for them. Most schools are buying Bundy (Selmer NY) and JUpiters. They play like poop. The Yamahas are durable and play great. Wes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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