Take a trip to Wonderland
Mad Hatter party to raise funds for music education
Things will get curiouser and curiouser at the Pines Dines food truck village this Saturday, June 15, when Music Is Instrumental hosts its second annual Mad Hatter FunRaiser.
“Ross and Rachelle, creators, builders, owners and managers of the Pines Dine, have welcomed us back saying that ‘this is the best decorated and most lively fund-raiser we've had there,’” said Mark Sander, director of the Music is Instrumental (MII) board. “Costumes are encouraged, as one can't have too many Mad Hatters, Alices or White Rabbits running around.”
Tickets include food from one of the 12 food carts, two beverage tickets for specialty drinks, including beer, wine, soft drinks or water, and plenty of entertainment.
“Reflective of our last year's success, we will be welcoming back our very own board member Gwen Lahti on ukulele performing with Richard Paris on guitar,” Sanders said. “The featured performers are Jet Black Pearl, a global sensation who will rock your world, with trumpet extraordinaire, James Powers. The entertainment alone is worth the price of admission.”
The evening will also feature silent and live auctions, a spirited evening of camaraderie, lots of laughter and most likely dancing.
Music is Instrumental is a nonprofit with the mission to support high quality music education, performances and instruments for students on the Central Oregon Coast. One hundred percent of proceeds from the event will go directly to support its music and music education programs for K-12 Schools.
“Each year, thanks to our beloved patrons, we raise necessary funds to ensure that new instruments are purchased when needed, instruments are repaired, reeds and oils are purchased and that we have music technicians available to conduct sectionals with the students,” Sanders said. “Our businesses and community members and cherished friends from out of state, are tried-and-true believers that music changes young lives, in fact, all lives.”
The organization's five-member board of directors consists of educators, a real estate agent and retirees.
“We all have the same desire, which is to ensure that music and music education is prevalent in our K-12 schools,” Sanders said. “Also, there are three music teachers from Oceanlake, Taft Elementary and Taft High, two principals and an ED at Lincoln County Community College, helping safeguard that the four pillars of MII are being followed.”
In 2014, the Oregon Community Foundation awarded a Studio to School Project Grant to Lincoln City schools to return music to the curriculum. A sequential music program in grades K-12 was created, building from one teacher with 140 students in 2014, to three teachers with 1,250 students in 2018. Music is Instrumental was founded in 2018 to sustain and expand this effort to other schools on the Central Oregon Coast.
“Music education stimulates the brain by requiring children to listen to the beat, read sheet music and coordinate their movements,” Sanders said. “Music also helps youth develop fine and gross motor skills, especially hand-eye coordination. From social skills, team work, responding to others and memorization, these classes acted as a catalyst for improved math scores, school attendance and graduation rates.”
Pre-COVID, the organization was reaching nearly 1,300 kids in area schools.
“Those pesky COVID years brought their own special circumstances for continued education,” Sanders said. “Through grants and, again, donor support, we purchased Chromebooks and unique software so that students could play their instruments from home, perform with others on the screen, interact with the music teacher and conduct one-on-one tutorials between teacher and student or student and music technician. We lost many music students due to the lack of bandwidth in the more rural areas, but in every gray cloud, there is a ray of hope.”
Old school buses were fitted with the necessary equipment so that students could come to the bus, park in neighborhoods, connect to the internet and continue their music practice.
“This one makes me tear up a bit,” Sanders said. “The proverb, ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ continues to roll through my mind. The music technicians were mostly retired music professors and folks who play in orchestras, bands and the Lincoln Pops. They add a very special piece to the MII mission, ensuring that individual attention is given to all who need it.”
Saturday’s fund-raiser begins at 5:30 pm at the Pines Dine, located at 5040 SE Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City. Tickets are $90 per person. For more information and tickets, go to musicisinstrumental.net or call 541-669-1868.