P.S. 124 is a public elementary school in South Ozone Park, New York. I found out that the music program at P.S. 124 was suffering from lack of funding. I took it upon myself to help figure out a way to help out the school by providing the music department with musical instruments. This would ensure that no child would be turned down a musical education due to economic issues.

My project provided for the collection, refurbishment, and delivery of both and used and unused musical instruments to P.S. 124 in South Ozone Park, New York City, a school which cannot otherwise afford them.The instruments which were collected, refurbished, and delivered in this project became communal within the school, so that for years to come, students who wish to learn about music will not be turned down.

Getting the Word Out The first and foremost step concerning this project was to spread the word about my project within the community in order to have the best chance of receiving instruments. Throughout the course of my project, word was spread throughout the community in three distinct ways: school presentations, community newspapers, and flyers. School Presentations Throughout my project, presentations were given to the Music Classes within the Herricks and Wheatley School districts which contained information about my project. The first step I decided to take was to reach out to the Wheatley High School. On March 17th, I created a flyer which discussed the logistics of my project, and photo copied 150 copies. This was done at my father’s office, resulting in free photocopying Directly afterwards, I created a “Tips to Remember While Delivering a Speech” instruction sheet which would be given to my friends William Forero and Daniel Mageu. Being students of Wheatley High School, Will and Dan were chosen to give presentations to Wheatley High School. I met with them both on Tuesday, March 18th, gave each 75 flyers and a “Tips” sheet, and practiced delivering the speeches. The following day, March 19th, Dan and Will both explained the project and handed out flyers to the students of Wheatley High School band classes. When it came to presenting the project to my own school district, I found it best to deliver the presentations myself. After carefully scheduling times to present with each music class and club, the following presentations were completed: March 24th - Herricks High School Wind Ensemble April 4th - Herricks Tri-M Music Honor Society May 13th- Denton Avenue Elementary School Band May 14th- Herricks Middle School 6th Grade Band Herricks Middle School 7th/8th Grade Band May 15th - Center Street Elementary School Band* Searingtown Elementary School Band* In addition to the presentations, each music class/club was given approximately 60 flyers to bring home. * In the cases of Center Street and Searingtown Elementary Schools, I was not available at any time that the Band class met. Therefore, instead of delivering the speech myself, I explained the logistics of the project to each band teacher, and they each presented to their own class. Community Newspapers John McNeur, Director of Music for Nassau County and Chairman of the Music Department at Herricks High School, also wears the hat of Herricks High School Public Relations Liaison for the local community newspapers. He suggested that I write up a short article discussing my project, and he would be able to put them in several local newspapers. I did just that. On March 23rd, I typed up a short article, and e-mailed it to John McNeur. It appeared in the following newspapers on the following dates: April 11th - Williston Times New Hyde Park Herald April 25th - The Illustrated News On April 18th, I was extremely excited to Receive a congratulatory letter from Nassau County Clerk Maureen O'Connell. Flyers In addition to giving out flyers to the music classes/clubs we presented to, I thought it a good idea to go around the neighborhood and deliver these flyers in the mailboxes of all the local residents. On April 21st, I altered the regular flyer by taking off my house number, and replacing it with my cell phone number. If these flyers were to be handed out to complete strangers, I did not want them having my house number. After altering the original flyer, I made 600 copies at my fathers office. I immediately went home, went to my computer, and found a large map of the neighborhood on Google Maps. Carefully I highlighted all the streets where the flyers would be delivered. After, I printed out 16 “mini-maps” which would be handed to each volunteer group. Each “mini-map” highlighted exactly what streets to cover. On April 22nd, 28 people arrived at my house and helped either distribute or fold the flyers. Flyer distribution was a huge success. Many people who later donated instruments said they found out about my project through a flyer left in their mailbox. Fundraiser- Jazz Night My original thought for a fundraiser was to hold a concert of teachers and students who would be willing to play, charge $5 at the door, and sell refreshments. I went to Mr. McNeur asking if I would need a special permit of some sort to host an event such as this. He said I would need a club to sponsor the event, and sent me to Anissa Gonnen, Tri-M Music Honor Society club advisor. On April 16th, I met with Mrs. Gonnen and proposed my idea to her. She like the idea, but she had a better one. Each year, Tri-M puts on a “Jazz Night” in the courtyard of the High School. And each year, admission had been free, but Mrs. Gonnen gave me permission to co-run Jazz Night with Tri-M and charge admission to act as the fundraiser. She proposed the idea that all proceeds would go directly to my project. I accepted this idea with open arms. Jazz Night was to be held on June 13th. On April 17th I spoke to the Tri-M leadership board to discuss the logistics of the concert. We decided that I would be in charge of admission, advertising, providing waiters, getting performers, and to act as the official MC for the night. Tri-M would be in charge of setting up, decorations, food sales, and technical aspects (lighting, microphones, etc.). The next step was to get the word out within the school and community. On June 2nd, I delegated my good friend and great artist, Steven Violago, to create a flyer as an advertisement for the event. When Steven handed the finished flyer back to me the next day, I, using the School photocopy machine, made 50 copies of the flyer and hung up 25 of them all around the school. On June 9th, I met with the board members of Tri-M Music Honor Society and we discussed everything about Friday’s event, from lineup and decorations to seating arrangements and refreshments. The day before Jazz Night, June 12th, I sent an e-mail reminder to all my friends, family, and troop members for the upcoming event. On Friday , June 13th, Jazz Night was held, and everything went exactly according to plan. The event was to start at 7:00 P.M., but I had gotten there at 5:00 P.M. along with the Tri-M board members and the school technicians to help set up and prepare for the event. Around 15 minutes before start time, eight scouts from the troop came down to help out either serve food or help with admissions. The event was held from 7:00 P.M. - 9:30 P.M and many people attended. $460.25 was raised from admissions charge and voluntary donations, $55.75 was raised from refreshment sales, minus $71.00 used to reimburse Tri-M for purchasing the food, which calculated to a total of $425.00 raised. All in all, Jazz Night was a huge success. Repairing the Instruments Her name was Cindy Lauda and she agreed to do the repairs for a discounted price. We exchanged email addresses and agreed to talk about logistics over the internet. On June 6th, we exchanged emails back and forth and decided that on June 15th , I was to bring about 20 instruments that needed repair over to her house in Port Washington. She also explained to me that she would repair the woodwind instruments herself at her home, while her husband would repair the brass instruments at his music store in Sea Cliff. On June 15th I packed my car with 21 instruments and drove them over to Mrs. Lauda’s house in Port Washington. About a week later, on June 25th, directly after my Physics Regents, my mother, volunteer friend Titus Mathew, and I traveled to Mrs. Lauda’s house and picked up the repaired instruments. The total cost to repair the instruments was $325.00 which was covered using the money raised from Jazz Night. Delivery With constant back and forth e-mails and telephone calls between Ms. Fulgieri and I, we finally decided that I was to deliver the newly repaired instruments to P.S. 124 on June 26th. When the day finally arrived, at around 11:30 A.M., Mrs. Caroline Frasier (volunteer mother), my mother, and I packed each of our cars with all the donated instruments, and head out westward, toward the school. Upon arrival, at around 12:00 P.M., Mrs. Fulgieri kindly met us at the entrance of the school. She hadn’t told be before hand, but she hurried me inside and brought me to an end-of-the-year faculty meeting and gave a presentation to the entire faculty and staff of P.S. 124 about my project. Everyone was extremely grateful and warmly congratulated me with a loud round of applause. For the next hour, faculty, students, Mrs. Frasier, my mother, and I unloaded all the cars and brought them into an empty classroom where they were to be stored for the summer. When all the cars were unloaded and all the instruments were stored, Mrs. Fulgieri then guided me down to her office where she presented me with an extremely grateful letter of recommendation and thanks for all the hard work I had put into this successful project. I feel as if I have made a huge impact at P.S. 124. For years to come, children will be able to explore the wonders of music and never be denied of a musical education. Spreading music where music was vacant was my ultimate goal for this project, and I am happy to acknowledge that I did just that.

N/A. But if others would like to help a school or community with a lack of music funding, they should feel entitled to take on such a project. There is no other feeling similar to the feeling of changing someone's life for the better.