Music fundraiser for kids hits right note
Greg Wierzcholski doesn’t want any child to have to quit their music lessons because their parents can’t afford them.
But it happens. Some kids stay away, not because of a lack of interest or the practising required, but because of the money.
That reality hit home for Wierzcholski, director of Niagara Conservatory of Music, when he had kids of his own and was thinking about extracurricular activities.
“If I was unable to let them participate, it would be a tough thing,” he said Saturday at the third annual Music Gives Fundraiser at Polonia Park in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
It’s why he started Music Gives in 2015 to raise money to put less privileged youth across Niagara through music lessons.
The day-long fundraiser attended by about 300 people featured live music by students from the conservatory in St. Catharines and other local acts, raffles, inflatables and a barbecue. Admission was a monetary donation of one’s choosing and while it wasn’t tallied Saturday, Wierzcholski was hoping to hit $3,000.
The conservatory has donated $13,000 in music lessons for kids at its Centre Street building to date.
Wierzcholski said it is trying to fundraise through the year for the program as well.
“We want to be able to reach more,” he said, explaining the need is there.
The conservatory has worked for more than a decade with Niagara ProKids, which funds extracurricular activities for children whose total family income is less than $40,000.
ProKids contacts Wierzcholski when a child comes to its attention who wants to play an instrument and gives $100 of funding, which he said is about five weeks of lessons. When that money runs out, he said a lot of the kids quit.
He started a program two years ago to help fill the gap. With every new registration at the conservatory, the school donates one music lesson to a child who can’t afford it. On average, there are 300 new students a year and Wierzcholski estimated the conservatory is giving away about $6,000 worth of lessons a year.
But it’s still not enough. He said ProKids ran out of funding for the music lessons last year and there’s only so much the conservatory can do for free.
“Today is about trying to raise a little bit of extra money to help more families,” Wierzcholski said.
The conservatory has tried to reach an even greater number of children as well by donating more than $15,000 in musical instruments to local elementary schools.
St. Catharines’ Connaught, Lincoln Centennial, St. Denis, Canadian Martyrs and Port Weller schools and Niagara Falls’ Greendale have each received a dozen ukuleles, an acoustic guitar, a cajon box drum and a variety of other acoustic percussion instruments.
Wierzcholski said the they started the giveaways by targeting schools in less fortunate neighbourhoods they were trying to reach, but soon came to realize that most schools don’t have money for musical instruments.
He said music and brain development go hand in hand.
Learning to play an instrument builds confidence and can help kids in school because they’re forced to focus at an early age to be able to read music quickly and concentrate.
“We see the importance, but it’s not accessible to everybody,” he said. “We want to make music accessible to anybody who shows an interest.”