MusiCounts Gives $500K Worth of Instruments to 30 Communities
The music-focused organizations ranged in scope from Toronto's The Hammer Band to Charlotte Street Arts Centre and Fredericton Girls Rock Camp.
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MusiCounts and the TD Bank Group on Wednesday honoured 30 community music programs countrywide that received $500,000 worth of musical instruments and equipment for over 3000 aspiring musicians. Half went to Ontario-based organizations.
Three community groups received funding in Quebec, with two groups each in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Yukon, and one each for Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador receiving support.
The music-focused organizations ranged in scope from Toronto's The Hammer Band - From Violence to Violins to Guelph's Ball4All Sports Initiatives - Beats, Balls and Rhymes to Charlotte Street Arts Centre - Fredericton Girls Rock Camp.
Canada's music education charity associated with The Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Juno Awards, made the instrument donations as part of the MusiCounts TD Community Music Program, launched in 2017.
JUNO Award-winning artist Derek Miller hosted a celebration for one of the selected organizations, Music for the Spirit, a music learning, singing and playing community program in Ohsweken, Ontario, on the Six Nations Grand River Reserve.
Music for the Spirit is a community project helps young Indigenous people learn about their traditions and heritage as they learn music skills. The Anglican Church of Canada and the Dreamcatcher Charitable Foundation, which provides grants to indigenous peoples and entrepreneurs, had previously supplied music instruments to Music for the Spirit for music learning, singing and playing.
"Music has the power to transform communities and empower the next generation of creative thinkers, musicians and artists," said Kristy Fletcher, executive director of MusiCounts, in a statement. "Thank you to TD Bank Group for supporting MusiCounts and helping us give instruments and equipment to community music programs in need, impacting generations of youth."
The MusiCounts TD Community Music Program provides musical instrument and equipment grants that range from $10,000 to $25,000 to programs at schools and activity centres in underserved communities.
To date, the program has provided over $2.2 million in musical instruments and equipment to 125 programs nationwide.
In 2017, TD Bank Group pledged another $1.87 million to MusiCounts over three years to continue its music instruments program. – Continue reading Etan Vlessing’s feature on the SamaritanMag website.
