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Volunteer Opportunities
Instrument Inventory Watchdog – We have received over forty instruments from various sources, and will be receiving more in the coming year. These are used by the students whose families can’t afford to buy or rent one, and are in a variety of conditions before and after their use. We need someone to keep track of which students have which instruments, work with our teachers and Kolacny Music to determine their need for repair, and help with introducing new instruments into the inventory and ushering some to an instrument cemetery.
Adopt a Band Class – Each of our classes is taught by a professional musician or a music educator. For each class, we also have an assistant instructor, guaranteeing that the class is not going to be delayed by instrument issues of one student and making sure that kids in need of particular assistance can receive it while the class continues. But the class, and the school, can benefit from having one person help on occasion with class logistics; getting reeds, music or other last-minute supplies; helping with communication with the parents; helping coordinate concert activity; and all the other fun things that arise.
Concerts and Kids – We started this year to provide brief concerts at two schools during the lunch periods for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. We ask musicians to come perform 3 separate 15-minute concerts, and it has been very well-received. But we would like to expand to other schools, and we would like to expand the number and variety of musicians. We could use some help in this venture.
Communication Helper (or Leader) – We currently communicate with parents at each specific school. But we would like to greatly expand our communication to the broader community. We would like to create a Facebook page and strategy, we would like to get in touch with the various booster groups in the District and the alumni who owe at least some of their success to their experience in a band or orchestra.
Tracking Our Success – Our objective is to increase the participation and retention of students in middle school and high school band programs in Littleton Public Schools. We need assistance in determining how best to do that, and in obtaining the data from the District and the schools. The District is very supportive of our activities, and will provide us with data within the confines of their privacy concerns. We need to figure out how to best do that.
Tom Haller
Tom has been the motivating force behind Opening Notes. He doesn’t play an instrument, let alone teach any. He can’t carry a tune, can’t read music, and his closest association with meaningful music was a visit to the home of Mozart sometime during his 250th birthday year. Mozart’s 250th, not Tom’s. But when his oldest daughter went into high school, he began volunteering with the Arapahoe Band. This continued for a total of six years, as Abbe, then sister Emily, became accomplished vocal and instrumental musicians. That volunteer work allowed Tom to observe the incredible impact that being part of a well-run band program had on his kids and on so many of the other kids in the program. That participation in music impacted them academically, socially, and personally. They became better students, better friends, and better people. So he decided to help provide other students with the same opportunities his daughters had, and Opening Notes was born.