Instrument donations are being sought for students participating in music classes in the St. Joseph School District who may not be able to afford one of their own.

“We have a growing group of students that come from backgrounds where their socioeconomic status prohibits them from either being able to rent or buy an instrument to be in their school band or orchestra, said Kevin Griffin, Secondary Fine Arts Coordinator. “Eight years ago we started a program called ‘Music In Our Schools’ to help meet that need and we went to the community and asked community members that had instruments that weren’t being used to donate them to the school district for that purpose.”

Griffin said several businesses in the community have also stepped up to help with the program. Lanham Music donated a Cello to the district Thursday morning. Griffin said string instruments are especially needed.

“The biggest need is for string instruments for 6th grade students. 30-40 students might not be able to participate in the strings program because there are no instruments available to them,” said Griffin. “At this point, our biggest need is to supply beginning band and string students with instruments.”

He said studies have shown that learning to play music can boost academic and social skills and help to keep kids in school.

“There’s a lot of history involved in music, there’s a lot of science involved in the sound of music so it’s very related to all of their core academic areas and there is a lot of data that shows that students that perform in instrumental ensembles do find greater success in the other core academic areas,” said Griffin.

Individuals wanting to donate to the program can drop off instruments at Troester Media Center at 3401 Renick.   Anyone with any questions can call (816) 671-4390.