James Madison STEAM Academy has a $700 budget for the entire music program to pay for repairs and supplies. With nearly 700 students from elementary to middle school, most of whom qualify for free and reduced lunch, the budget barely scratches the surface to cover the costs of having a successful music program. Those additional fees can fall on music teacher Christen Adler.
Fortunately, John DeWitt, a well-known face around Greeley as a realtor and musician, created the Crescendo Foundation last October to support the expensive day-to-day needs of students in instrumental music programs in Greeley-Evans School District 6. As a parent of two children who participated in music programs at District 6, DeWitt recalled his kids coming home from school with ongoing music needs. Stringed instrument players must regularly apply rosin to their bows.
Strings naturally break over time and need to be replaced. Woodwind players need to replace their reeds as they wear down with use. The costs never came as a worry to DeWitt’s family, but he often wondered about the families who couldn’t afford the items — the more than 70% of students who live in poverty in District 6.
DeWitt found that financial barriers can cause talented musicians or music lovers to part ways with music education or teachers to pay out of pocket to cover the extra costs of maintenance and supplies. “It would be like playing football without a helmet,” he said. “A lot of kids aren’t going to do it.
” The Crescendo Foundation eliminates barriers that hinder students from pursuing music and teachers from purchasing the items out of pocket. The funding will help with instrument maintenance costs and additional supplies students need like reeds, strings, mouthpieces, valve oil, rosin and more. DeWitt credits his mother, Connie Newlin, for starting his passion for music when she made him start taking piano lessons at age 7.
So when his mother died in 2021, he wanted to find a way to pay it forward. “This all started with my mom,” DeWitt said. “I always wanted to do something for her to say, ‘Thanks, Mom, for giving me such an amazing life and career.
’” Paying it forward is exactly what he will do for musicians in District 6 for years to come with annual donations. DeWitt gets it Last week, the Crescendo Foundation made the first $3,000 donation to the Success Foundation, the fundraising arm of District 6. The timing was perfect to partner with Dewitt, according to Julie Hill, the executive director of the Success Foundation.
The Success Foundation recently launched an initiative to raise funds to get a one-instrument-to-one-student ratio over a two-year period. Some instruments average between $5,000 to $10,000, Hill said. An instrument in the hands of all music students will erase the need to share with others, giving students more time to practice and learn.
Music opens the door to opportunities that kids normally don’t have, Adler said. The advantages of music education include better testing scores, brain development, improved hand-eye coordination, community-building and more, she explained. Once the Success Foundation established its goal focused on instruments, DeWitt came to the nonprofit with the idea to focus on additional costs, aside from the instruments themselves.
Kathy Azari, a specials coordinator in District 6, will work with all schools to help the Success Foundation determine where the funding should go. “Many school districts in our country don’t even have instrumental music in the schools,” Azari said. “We’re so lucky to have it funded and to have it supported by our community, and to have people like John DeWitt who get it.
” Azari previously taught band in District 6 for 30 years alongside her husband, Doran, who taught orchestra. He now serves on the District 6 Board of Education. As someone with more than 30 years of work in the district, she knows the need for music funding is still there.
Involvement in instrumental music programs remains high at the middle school level, especially for schools where that’s the only music program option, such as Winograd, Azari said. At Brentwood Middle School, about half the student population is in band or orchestra. Schools with higher poverty rates have reached out to Azari about their needs, such as James Madison STEAM Academy.
These schools will be at the top of her list when it comes to dividing up the allocation of funding from the Crescendo Foundation. James Madison STEAM started an instrumental music program last year that has become “super popular,” according to Christen Adler, the only music teacher at the school. Adler teaches all of the music classes from kindergarten to seventh grade, about 700 students in total, which includes elementary music, two choirs and bands.
Her beginning band program has 32 members in it. A majority of her students qualify for free and reduced lunch. If affording meals is hard, then it’s rare for families to have the money for music supplies and equipment, Adler said.
Teachers like Adler have always been the backbone that keeps music programs going because they have to make their programs work with limited funding. Even when poverty levels weren’t so high in District 6, the Azaris played a part in ensuring all their students had the resources needed to perform. Doran Azari would go as far as to keep spare strings in his car in case a student needed a quick fix.
Thirty years later, prices have skyrocketed so much that even a band book of $11 can be too much for some families who have to prioritize rent, groceries and other necessities. Without help, many of her students would never get to play their instruments. “If it’s expensive for parents, imagine what it’s like for teachers,” Azari said.
“They have 250 or 300 kids in a band program. It becomes totally overwhelming.” Students starting out in band often go through reeds quickly because they don’t know how to properly take care of them.
As a result, Adler has noticed many don’t want to buy reeds or ask for them because they are worried about damages. This caused students to stop taking their instruments home to practice. Funding for the much-needed consumable band supplies will do more than eliminate one stressful aspect of the job for Adler, it will help students feel more comfortable taking their instruments home to practice without worrying about financial burdens.
“Obviously, practicing is vital to the success of the band, because you only move as fast as the slowest person,” Adler said. “If they’re feeling the freedom to just go home and practice and not worry about all that extra stuff, then our program will just fly.” Annual contributions will grow At a time when Azari taught middle school band, the disparity between the haves and the have-nots in the District 6 music program was “nauseating,” she said.
A handful of students brought in beautiful, shiny new instruments to play, while others could only afford broken-down, beaten-up pieces. Azari thinks programs districtwide have improved to make access to musical needs equal for all because of community support, such as the Crescendo Foundation and the Success Foundation’s grant opportunities. Hill added her gratitude for DeWitt’s support to District 6 students and learning opportunities outside of academics that don’t receive funding.
DeWitt plans to make an annual contribution to music students, but the amount will grow through an annuity as new investments come in and interest is earned. He hopes the perpetuity funding will really start to make a difference each year. “Music is a second language, just like Spanish and German and French,” DeWitt said.
“Music is one of those gifts and talents that you can use the rest of your life. You can only play football for so long. But music, you can do it until the day you die.
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