In elementary school music classes across the United States, students are given a recorder, a simple hand flute with a whistle mouthpiece, and taught the basics of music. For many students, learning an instrument is the first step in their arts education.
But what if a student doesn’t have access to an instrument?
This is the challenge that three Lakeridge High School juniors sought to remedy by starting the nonprofit Oregon Music Giving Organization.
Last November, Mira Garcia, Ocean Punsalan and Mattias Balogh had the idea to start an organization that would give donated musical instruments to kids who didn’t have the resources. By the end of 2023, they’d made OMGO an official nonprofit and started working at finding their first instruments.
“I think music is just such a beautiful thing to experience, whether it’s the companionship of playing it with other people or using it as sort of a way to express yourself and your emotions,” said Garcia. “I think everyone should have a right to experience that and I guess our goal is to eliminate the things that would keep someone from getting to experience something as great as music.”
For guidance, the three students turned to Daniel Hartley, the band and orchestra director at Lakeridge.
“I think the overall vision that they have for the nonprofit is really important because it’s all about making sure people have access to instruments. If a kid wants to be involved in band or orchestra at any school, they either have to front the money with their family or use a school instrument. Every school is different with the amount of resources they have to help out. So, if a kid is in a situation where their family cannot provide the money or the school does not have the funding or the resources to help them, they just can’t be in music,” said Hartley.
The reason the three students felt so strongly about the organization was because of the impact music has had on their lives.
“I despised playing piano growing up, to be honest; it was like a chore for 45 minutes every day,” said Punsalan. “But now that I’ve taken it into my own hands, it’s more of my own pursuit; I’ve really enjoyed it and I found it to be a really excellent outlet and a lot of fun.”
Punsalan added that he felt like everyone he knew, family and friends, had a dusty instrument in their attics or basements. The others agreed; if everyone could donate those old, unused instruments to students who needed them, their love of music could spread.
“Music is important, especially for younger kids… there’s something called music therapy where it specifically sort of helps out with the mental wellbeing of the child. It’s good for someone who’s developing; it instills confidence, improves cognitive and non-cognitive skills and creativity,” said Punsalan.
In the future, OMGO would like to expand across Oregon and provide music lessons, another part of music education where money is a barrier.
According to the Oregon Community Foundation, one in seven Oregon schools doesn’t have music, theater or arts education programs.
“I think nationally there’s about 7,000 schools without music programs and getting that number down is pretty important to us,” said Balogh. “If you eliminate all the middlemen for music, like money, if you eliminate the need to buy an instrument and you can give it, I think that’s the quickest way to give somebody music.”
So far, the students have made two donations in the short amount of time since they started OMGO: a piano and a drum kit.
“What we’ve done in the past is called homeless shelters, Boys & Girls clubs, and found people. For example, we found a person who was going in and out of homes who really wanted to play the drums, so we found a drum set and made that happen,” said Punsalan.
The biggest challenge they’ve faced is getting the word out that they’re accepting donations of musical instruments. They know that the demand for instruments is there, once they can gather a larger inventory.
“They really did it all themselves, the whole time,” said Hartley. “I think that it speaks to a bigger vision of encouraging music education across our country in our world. There’s so much talk about music education dying out and I don’t think that’s necessarily true, but I think we do have to be careful that it doesn’t die out.”
Community members interested in donating musical instruments can contact the co-founders at https://www.oregonmusicgiving.org. There’s also a “wish application” page on their website that lets younger students let them know what instruments they’re looking for.
“It really starts with reaching each individual person,” said Punsalan.
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