Lancaster Intelligencer Journal April 26, 2008 Area schools awarded $20K in Music for Everyone grants By Brian Wallace, Intelligencer Journal Staff Lancaster, PA For the past three years, music teacher Liz Woratyla has had to improvise while teaching her preschool and kindergarten students at Wonder Club School. Woratyla brings whatever instruments she can scrounge from home - drums with wooden dowels for sticks, a triangle, hand jingle bells, tambourines and several homemade plastic egg shakers - to her classrooms in Lancaster and Columbia. But with few instruments to go around, her students often have to learn by the "wait-and-share" method, taking turns while the other children wait and watch - not exactly the best way to teach music to active 4- to 6-year-olds. That will change this fall, when Woratyla adds dozens of new percussion instruments to her teaching repertoire, thanks to the Music for Everyone grant program. The Lancaster-based nonprofit group is giving Woratyla a $615 grant to purchase several dozen drums, wood blocks, maracas, chimes, step bells, triangles, music books, CDs and other materials for her two classes. The money is part of $20,000 in grants that the music advocacy group plans to distribute next week to 12 Lancaster County schools. "It will definitely help a lot, especially in the kindergarten classes," said Woratyla, who volunteers two days a week at the schools, which are run by Water Street Rescue Mission. The instruments also will provide something "new and different" for her older students, Woratyla said. Music for Everyone will award the grants during a May 2 ceremony at Art Garden Park, across from Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The group Mighty Fine will perform, along with the Burrowes Elementary School "Beat for Peace" drummers. Burrowes was able to start the drumming program, which teaches students socialization as well as music skills, with a 2007 Music for Everyone grant. The school will get another $1,000 grant this year to buy more drums, xylophones and other percussion instruments. "I'm elated," Burrowes music teacher Heidi Shannon said. "When I first got here, we had nothing - not one drum. Now we're at the level where we can take groups of students out to the community to perform." In addition to Burrowes and Wonder Club, grants will be awarded to St. Anne Catholic School; Reynolds Middle School; and Beck, Bonfield, Kissel Hill, Central Manor, Lafayette, Washington, Wharton and Wickersham elementary schools. Central Manor will get one of the biggest grants: $2,250 to purchase 15 guitars that eventually will be used by all seven elementary schools in Penn Manor School District. The budget for instruments, sheet music and other materials at Central Manor is only about $500 to $700 a year, music teacher Sarah Repkoe said. Without the grant, the guitar program - which will reach about 600 students in grades five and six - would have taken years to implement, she said. Music for Everyone was established in October 2005 to educate the public on the importance of music programs and raise money to support them through live music events, donations and fundraisers. As word about the group has spread, Music for Everyone has been able to raise more money for schools and community groups every year. But the need always exceeds the available funds. "We had requests for $85,000 in grants this year, so there's still a huge gap out there," John Gerdy, the group's president, said. Studies have shown that students who take music appreciation and performance courses do better academically than those who don't. In recent years, funding priorities at many schools have shifted away from music and art because of the increased emphasis on PSSA math and reading test scores. Music for Everyone tries to fill those funding gaps, especially in schools with limited resources, Gerdy said. "It's important from a city perspective or a county perspective that we provide all of our schools with opportunities, because we're all tied together," he said. "I think we add value to the city and county in a lot of different ways by doing this, so it's exciting." ### Help cultivate the power of music. Click on the Donate button to make a contribution via our PayPal account (new browser window will open). Send your tax deductible contribution to: Music for Everyone 321 East Fulton Street Lancaster, PA 17602 717-871-1710 john@musicforeveryone.net