Radio station 99.9 KTYD’s month-long event in February brought in 140 musical instruments and more than $10,000 in support for the Santa Barbara Education Foundation’s Keep the Beat Instrument Drive, which benefits Santa Barbara Unified School District’s (SBUSD) music programs.
The on-air campaign celebrated the power of music education with interviews with SBUSD music teachers and local professional musicians like Glen Phillips, and young aspiring musicians like Dos Pueblos High School Drum Major Andrew Ji.
All of them stressed the importance of school music programs and asked for donations of used instruments that were collected at weekly drop-off events.
“It means a lot to me to be on the Keep the Beat radiothon. It helps the music lovers in our community make the connection between their favorite artists and the potential future artists that I have in my music class,” said Brett Larsen, Santa Barbara Junior High music teacher.
The efforts resulted in Keep the Beat’s largest instrument drive yet, yielding everything from more common donations such as guitars and violins to the obscure, like an electric ukulele, and a didgeridoo from Australia.
Larsen sees first-hand how donated instruments elevate musical learning opportunities for his students.
“And the instruments that people donate! To upgrade a promising young musician from a rental quality instrument to a professional quality instrument is priceless. It brings them that much closer to achieving their dreams,” he said.
Santa Barbara Education Foundation thanks the Johnson Ohana, Foundation, Pacific Premier Bank and Nick Rail Music for supporting the Keep the Beat Instrument Drive.
Since 2003, the Santa Barbara Education Foundation has kept the beat for school music programs by raising funds to pay for music instruction, and collecting instruments for local school music programs. For more, visit www.santabarbaraeducation.org.