HS/HSV Symphony Guild donates funds to Mountain Pine Band program

The Hot Springs/Hot Springs Village Symphony Guild recently raised and donated money to benefit the Mountain Pine Band program.

A primary mission of the HS/HSV Symphony Guild is providing support for music education for schools and students. Jim Kelley, the guild education vice president, oversees the program for bringing donated musical instruments to the local school bands where needed. After seeing a need for instrument mouthpieces for the band at Mountain Pine, he requested funds for the purchase of new mouthpieces. At a recent guild event, “Magical Evening,” a successful wine pull was held and made this gift possible.

“After several visits to the school, I became aware of some needs that I felt were very significant. As the band grows, there is a real shortage of instruments for the students to use. As a result of this, several students each day were using the same instruments while sharing mouthpieces. So my idea was to raise some funds to allow each student to at least have their own mouthpiece to use. As a result of our very successful wine pull at our ‘Magical Evening,’ this problem was solved. We also contributed enough funds to allow Mr. Johns to purchase some additional used instruments for his growing program. It has been a joy to see the students’ reaction,” Kelley said in a news release.

The HS/HSV Guild presented Chris Johns, director of the Mountain Pine Band program, with a check for $1,355.