Through a charity supported by his father, Wolfgang Van Halen has donated $100,000 to launch a special program to support public schools to acquire instruments for their music programs.
For decades, budgetary debate has remained heated about the importance, or the lack, of music programs in public schools, and Mr. Van Halen is stepping in to ensure educators who believe in the power of music to enrich educational experience have the resources to confer it to their students.
Working with the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation (MHOF), Van Halen has launched the Adopt a School campaign which connects qualifying schools across the nation in need of musical instruments with donors interested in supporting music education within a community of their choice.
“Music has been a huge part of my life, and it is our family’s great pleasure to help support music education programs and bring the gift of music to students across the country,” said Wolfgang Van Halen. “Music education has proven to be a huge contributor toward a student’s success in school, and in life.”
Some studies have shown that music classes promote academic excellence and other positive outcomes in school—like this one in Finland that found increased quality of life scores for students in ways that other non-academic classes, like sports and visual arts, did not replicate.
Despite this, music is famously the first program to get crushed under the weight of school district budgetary constraints.
“Our mission is to make sure there is an instrument in the hands of every student who needs and wants one. By increasing schools’ inventories of quality, playable instruments, music teachers will have the tools they need to deliver a quality music education to students who want to learn,” said MHOF CEO Tricia Williams.
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According to Guitar World, the project was developed off the back of a national survey that found 68% of educators had experienced at least one instance of turning an interested student away from music education because of a lack of resources like instruments.
Also in the survey, which included 225 schools, students were found to struggle in class from using instruments that were in need of repairs, but which the school had no money to pay for.
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Eddie Van Halen, the virtuoso guitar player from the band Van Halen, was a devoted supporter of MHOF, and the charity work he began is carried on by his son Wolfgang, whose $100,000 donation will kickstart the Adopt a School campaign in 100 schools nationwide.
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