Both Baileysville Elementary and Middle School and Pineville Middle School benefited from the VH1 Save The Music Foundation’s grant program, in conjunction with the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture, and History.
Each school's band has been awarded approximately $40,000 worth of new instruments through the program.
Chiho Feindler, Save The Music Foundation programming director, and Randall Reid-Smith, curator of the West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History, visited both schools Thursday evening to make the presentations.
“We believe music and arts should be a part of every school day,” Feindler emphasized.
The Save The Music Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to ensuring that music instruction is a core component to a complete education.
Feindler said the program has now provided grants to 2,100 schools in 42 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Over the past 11 years, the program has provided instruments, valued at just under $4.5 million, to 112 of 162 middle schools across West Virginia, Reid-Smith said.
In Wyoming County, a total of $160,000 worth of instruments has been provided, including previous awards to both Mullens and Oceana middle schools, Deirdre Cline, county schools superintendent, noted.
Cline expressed her appreciation to Feindler, Reid-Smith, and both Gov. Jim Justice and First Lady Cathy Justice for their support of the county schools.
“It's so important to keep arts in the schools,” she said.
“And money like that doesn't grow on trees,” Cline emphasized.
“The arts are so important,” Reid-Smith said. “They define who we are.
“All art forms are Appalachian. That's who we are,” he told the students.
Reid-Smith told the students at both schools that it is important to thank their parents and grandparents.
“We would not be anything without our families,” he said.
West Virginia people are the best people, he emphasized, and West Virginians are often the hardest people to convince of that.
“It's my job to convince our children how special they are,” he said.
Board member Richie Walker, who attended both ceremonies, said, when he went to school, kids in the band were looked down on.
“I love all sports, but after high school, they're done,” Walker said.
Playing in the band is something the students can use throughout their lives, he said.
“You're gifted,” he said, “and your gift is from God.
“The greatest enemy to 'best' is 'good',” Walker told the students. “Always strive to do your best.
“In sports, you always have winners and losers. In music, they are all winners,” he emphasized.
“God created football so we could have a half-time show,” Reid-Smith joked.
Following a performance of “Hallelujah” by Baileysville's band and chorus, Reid-Smith invited them to perform during the state's annual Christmas tree-lighting ceremony.
“What he just invited you to is a big deal,” Cline told the students.
Christie Dameron, school principal, said the students had only been practicing since Monday.
Feindler and Reid-Smith were accompanied by Vicki Shannon, executive assistant to West Virginia's first lady, who discussed the Communities in Schools initiative.
She said the program is now in 33 counties and officials hope to expand it into all 55 counties.
In addition to providing unmet needs of at-risk students to keep them in school, Communities in Schools facilitators are also working with students to ensure they have a plan following graduation, such as college, working, or military, Shannon said.
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