From the Field

So I got one of those calls that comes in every once in a while about someone wanting to make a sizable donation to an ISO education program, and you think, will this really come through?  Maybe, maybe not.  I want to play it cool and steady, but there's a part of me that gets really excited even though they may not pan out.  =)

About 20 years ago I worked as a telemarketer for a regional theatre company selling subscriptions. It was difficult work, but I believed in the product - live theatre.  My boss would tell me that a certain percentage of people who commit over the phone and tell you they'll send in a check, don't.  Instead, I was encouraged to collect a credit card number on the spot to avoid the possibility of amnesia or minds changing.

A Maestro Open committee member had called me to say he made a contact with a guy at Guitar Center who said he may have some instruments to donate to the ISO.  I called up Randy Jaunzemis, VP of Logistics with Guitar Center, that same day to follow up on the lead and in fact, Randy told me that he had some instruments, but didn't know what kind or how many instruments he would have. He then said he would call me when they came in from Maryland.

Some time passed and I got that call, so I drove to the big Guitar Center distribution center in Brownsburg and walked in to a conference room filled with string instruments.  Wow!  Some needed repairs, but many were ready to be placed in the hands of a child.  At that time Randy couldn't commit to which instruments would be coming our way because he had some schools coming by for a look later that week.  He did allow me to take one full sized violin with me that day to hand over to one of our Metropolitan Youth Orchestra students still using an instrument too small for the growing boy.  I was ecstatic!  If we ended up with just the one, that OK, but maybe he might have 5 instruments out the many he had in that room for us?  We had to wait and find out.

That next week, Randy and his colleagues dropped off the instruments at Symphony Centre.  It was a TRUCK LOAD!! We had a concert about a week later and I asked some of the parents to help me catalog the generous gift - 26 instruments in all (roughly $11,000 worth!)

“When one of my contacts put me in touch with the orchestra, I was surprised by the excitement and need for the instruments,” said Jaunzemis. “Putting instruments in the hands of aspiring musicians fits perfectly with our company anthem, ‘we help people make music.’”

Thank you to Guitar Center, Inc. and Randy Jaunzemis for their generous donation to the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra program of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.  This youth and family development program uses string instruction to reach inner city youth and many students have no means to acquire an instrument.  Their gifts will be well used!

THE METROPOLITAN YOUTH ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1995 by Betty Perry and managed by the ISO since 2008, the MYO is the only youth orchestra in the city designed to serve socioeconomically challenged students in an urban setting and does not require an audition to participate. The program provides a safe, structured and positive learning environment for at-risk and underserved youth and their families; builds students’ musical skills through free and reduced-tuition music instruction; teaches them life skills and exposes them to nurturing adult role models; and encourages them to graduate high school. More than 150 socially, economically and racially diverse students in grades K-12 from area schools participate in the 35-week program.

The MYO program is also supported by the Nina Mason Pulliam Charitable Trust; National Endowment for the Arts; a Community Crime Prevention Grant; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009; Christel DeHaan Family Foundation; The Indianapolis Foundation, a CICF affiliate; Back Home Again Foundation; Indianapolis Chapter of the Links, Inc.; The Glick Fund, a fund of Central Indiana Community Foundation; Shaw-Burckhardt-Brenner Foundation; Sheila Fortune Foundation; The Rotary Foundation of Indianapolis; and Stewart & Irwin P.C.