For the first time in at least three decades, School District of Lancaster students returned for a new school year with no broken instruments in their music rooms, thanks to a collaborative effort from the district, instrument store Menchey Music and Lancaster nonprofit Music for Everyone.
Michael Slecta, a veteran of the school district’s music department since 1991, said he can’t recall a school year that started with zero broken instruments.
“For years and years, one of our biggest challenges has been providing instruments to students who want to play instruments,” says Slecta, who started at the district s a music teacher and now works as the district’s coordinator of Music, Art, Humanities and 21st Century Skills. “As a district with a lot of families experiencing poverty and such, many of the families do not have the financial ability to buy or rent a quality instrument.”
According to Music for Everyone Director of Development Deb Rohrer, 272 SDoL instruments were repaired by Menchey Music or replaced at a total cost of $36,613, provided by donor funds. Teachers note the instruments that need repair; Menchey picks up all the instruments to assess and repair, and then Music for Everyone writes the check. Menchey is headquartered in Hanover but has a location on the Manheim Pike in Manheim Township.
Slecta estimated that the partnership saves the school district several thousand dollars per year. The instrument repair program, which first began with a pilot program at the Columbia School District in 2017, came out of heightened requests for funds to fix instruments, MFE Assistant Executive Director Brendan Stengle said.
“We started seeing the same requests over and over for repairs, and we started thinking, ‘Listen, we’re given all this stuff, it makes sense and is the most responsible thing to do to be repairing these instruments,’ ” Stengle said over the phone. “We can’t just do the ‘drive-by philanthropy’ thing of, ‘Here’s some stuff — we’ll see you later, good luck out there!’ As responsible stewards of the people that invest in Music for Everyone, we want to make sure that our reinvestment back into the community and schools, that those instruments are taken care of.”
Both Rohrer and Stengle said it’s hard to estimate the need each year for instrument repairs, that it varies per school and musical department. Once an instrument has been catalogued, repaired and returned to each school, Stengle noted, the instrument is rarely a problem again.
“The first time we did Columbia, we were sent 80-something instruments. The subsequent times, it’s been five or so instruments,” Stengle explains. “Manheim Central – they had so many instruments, I was shocked at all the broken instruments sitting on the shelf. The first year, I think we did close to 250;second year, we had, like,10. Once you get through that initial overhaul, it’s more manageable. We’re fixing a problem that has existed for decades, in more or less one fell swoop.”
Rohrer says that avoiding the natural deterrent of beginning on a poor-sounding or beat-up instrument is important for a child’s musical education. As the school year continues, Music for Everyone will be once again launching its after school program for all kids in Lancaster County schools, including homeschooled students. Stengle says that he is happy with the work that MFE has done but recognizes the uphill climb in truly providing music for everyone.
“There’s still so much work to be done and so much need out there in our music programs,” Stengle says. “That’s evidenced by our grant programs – we were able to give out $80,000 this past year, it made us feel really good, it was super exciting … but we received over $300,000 in asks, so we had to make tough choices. So yes, we’re happy, but we’re also nose to the grindstone, because there’s a heck of a lot more work to be done.”
