Back to school with Music for students in financial need

LMTA helps students and teachers throughout the Lincoln community--now you can help too.
Credit: LMTA website

The Lincoln Music Teachers’ Association (LMTA) is an organization for teachers to network and help each other; it helps students find teachers and gives students educational opportunities and competitions. The motto of LMTA is to “revere excellence.” One of the ways that LMTA provides musical opportunities and excellence in the Lincoln community is through the Music Outreach Program. The Music Outreach Program helps students as they go back to school this fall with musical skills and life lessons learned through practice and performance.

Jessica Freeman, treasurer for LMTA, is excited about the opportunity for people in the community to help contribute to the Music Outreach Program. Because of “an anonymous donor who wanted to support the Music Outreach Program,” LMTA is looking for a matching gift of $5000 from the community. “Any amount will help and all you need to do to donate is contact treasurer@lmta.info.”

The anonymous donor “thought that starting an endowment would be the best way to keep giving. It can continue growing, through investment. And $10,000 is the minimum to start the investment and earn money through it.” The endowment will be called “M.U.S.I.C. which stands for Music for UnderServed Interested Children.” The finance committee for LMTA thought that this matching program would “allow the whole community to contribute. No one will know how much you gave, but you will be recognized in the LMTA year book and be a part of an ongoing effort to bring music to children in need.”

The Music Outreach Program “helps provide lessons for financially in need students. Students who are eligible for free lunch pay $5 for a month of lessons. Those eligible for reduced lunch pay $20 per month, and the teacher teaches them 4 lessons a month and gets paid $60 per month. This does create a gap in need of funding which is supported by fundraising, some grants from the Lincoln area, and donations from Dietze Music. Now, hopefully this endowment will become an ongoing means of financial assistance for the program. Students also get free instruments and music donated from music stores for their studies.”

LMTA believes that students who receive mentoring in the form of lessons will eventually become good citizens and philanthropists, and Freeman states that the “Music Outreach Program contributes to the community because when students are the beneficiaries of programs like these, they will give back when they reach adulthood and positions of influence. Studies also show that music helps develop skills that are useful in school.”

So, if you are ready to become part of the M.U.S.I.C. Endowment, Freeman has this advice: “Send checks to Lincoln Community Foundation or to me, by contacting treasurer@lmta.info. You can become a member of the endowment at any time, but if you want to become a charter member donate by August 24th, send me your name and donation amount, and attend the luncheon at the Governor’s Mansion at 11:30 (lunch cost is $10). There is also a speech by Dr. Valerie Cisler, Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music and Performing Arts at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She will speak on “Music Mastery = Motivation”, a look at the impact of student mastery of practice and performance skills on motivation.”
Help Lincoln students with a donation to the M.U.S.I.C. Endowment to bring music to students in the community!