Music teacher Angie Dalton has taught music with the same instruments since she started teaching at Birmingham Elementary School 29 years ago.

“Some of the ones that I have are pretty ancient,” she said. “They get a lot of use and therefore abuse. It’s just wear and tear.”

All of that changed for the music teacher and her students after Birmingham Elementary received $27,600 worth of brand new musical instruments as part of the Intro to Music Grant by Save The Music Foundation, a national nonprofit based in New York that provides musical resources to school districts across the country.

The East Toledo elementary school received musical equipment including 30 ukuleles, 100 recorders, handheld percussion instruments, and a digital piano and acoustic guitar for Mrs. Dalton to use for teaching.

Mrs. Dalton and students from her eighth-grade music class showed their appreciation to the Save The Music Foundation by putting on a ukulele performance for Jaclyn Rudderow, senior director of school programs for the foundation.

“To see the musical instruments here in the Birmingham music classroom is just so rewarding,” Ms. Rudderow said. “It’s so full circle.”

Though Mrs. Dalton is trying to “stay one step ahead” of her students, she’s learning how to play the ukulele along with them, she said.

Mrs. Dalton played songs like “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers with six of her eighth-grade music students on their new ukuleles. She said the students are “truly some of the best eight graders I’ve ever had here.”

Eighth-grade students Nakiah Howard, 14, Kieanna Vansickle, 14, Zoey Woods, 13, Jayden Cabrera, 14, Dominic Jones, 14, and Emanuel Jones, 13, have been learning to play the ukulele alongside their teacher for a little less than a month.

The students said it’s been hard learning how to play the ukulele.

“It’s hard to switch,” Kieanna said of moving fingers from one string to the other. “It gets better as you practice.”

Toledo is one of five cities in Ohio to partner with Save The Music Foundation, Ms. Rudderow said. The other four are Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, and Akron.

The foundation also has regions of the country that are priorities for the organization because of its strategic plan, Ms. Rudderow said.

Those regions include the states of Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Southern California, and the cities of Miami and Atlanta.

The Save The Music Foundation reached out to Toledo Public Schools to continue to expand on the missions the organization started in the four other Ohio cities, which sparked excitement in Jennifer DeYarman, senior director of multilingual learner education, language assistance, and unified arts for the school district.

“This is our first Save The Music building,” Ms. DeYarman said. “It’s important to the district because we want to foster that love of music. ... We want to grow the amount of kids that love and perform music and then continue that in high school.”

Toledo Public Schools and Save The Music Foundation are set to partner with each other for the next decade, Ms. Rudderow said.

Ms. DeYarman said the plan is to get a hold of grants for all elementary schools in the district that qualify for the grant.

Requirements for schools to qualify for the grant include having a full-time music teacher and a designated classroom for music and hosting at least 45 minutes of music instruction a week for every student, Ms. Rudderow said.

“Our goal is to reach every school in Toledo that is eligible for the grant,” Ms. Rudderow said.

First Published November 21, 2024, 9:45 p.m.