As a music education teacher for Beaver Acres, I support the mission of the school to engage and motivate every student to embrace their potential as a unique individual, to find their own voice to positively impact the world through our music classes.

Music education in the elementary years has a multitude of benefits and learning to play an instrument, in particular, provides some of the greatest benefits. My goal is to put an instrument into the hands of every student in class for the entire class period. However, we only have 20 soprano ukuleles to share in classes with 25-29 students. We have approximately 110 fifth graders in our school and only 100 recorders to learn the fundamentals of wind instrument playing. We have 11 xylophones that are in poor condition and don't have the materials to repair them.

That's where you can help! We are raising funds to purchase xylophones, ukuleles and recorders that students in every grade level can use! Your donation could close the gap between our current lack of supplies and the instruments we need to teach the fundamentals of music. This is imperative to harnessing the power of music education to meet the needs of a large and highly diverse group of students here at Beaver Acres Elementary. Beaverton Education Foundation is helping us reach our $1850 goal by matching EVERY donation dollar-for-dollar, DOUBLING the impact of your gift.

In the last 20 years, an abundance and variety of research has demonstrated that early and long-term exposure to strong music education significantly boosts academic test scores, school attendance, and graduation rates. Music programs have had an even greater effect on closing the achievement gap than added hours of tutoring in reading and math. Music strengthens language and aural processing centers in the brain as well as stimulating the chemistry of mental health, and awakening connections that no other academic activity does. Music education provides a natural opportunity for students at Beaver Acres to relate to diversity and build multicultural understanding within a community as they develop their own unique strengths, awareness, and self-respect.

Please help us meet our goal and put an instrument into the hands of every Beaver Acres student!