BUFFALO, NEW YORK – Thanks to your donations, Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation has supplied students at P.S. 207 Lafayette International High School with two new Casio keyboards, an acoustic guitar, and a classroom set of headphones for private practice!

The impact of the keyboards is felt by hundreds of students who come into class searching for outlets for self-expression, esteem, and accomplishment. They felt so motivated to make changes in the music classroom that they teamed up to be advocates for their own cause and benefit. By taking matters in to their own hands, they showed determination and assertiveness. Mr. Silvis’ sheds some light on their commitment. 

“Students in my advisory class interviewed teachers, researched items, made budgets, and wrote proposals to complete this application as a service project for other teachers around my school,” says Mr. Jason Silvis.

These are their words:

Dear Keeping the Blues Alive Foundation,

Our school represents diversity. We are refugees and immigrants from all over the world. We are all bilingual and there are over 19 languages spoken at our school. We are all English learners and receive free lunches. What makes [us] special is that although we come from tough backgrounds, we work extremely hard to overcome the challenges to be successful in this country. Our students really need instruments because there are a lot of students, and we don’t have enough instruments for everyone. Music class is so big and our teacher wants everyone to participate. There are about 200 students who will benefit from these materials.  We would like to get headphones to listen to music.  Also, we would like to get Casio keyboards for students so we can play together and we would also like a guitar because many students want to learn how to play guitar. Finally, we need pencils for students that don’t have pencils. Our students really like music class. Please help us get those materials so we can learn more about music and about expressing ourselves.

-Students of P.S. 207

Thanks to the generosity of Joe Bonamassa fans and music lovers like you, we were able to successfully fund Mr. Silvis and his students’ project. 

Dear Keeping The Blues Alive Foundation, Inc.,

Thank you so much for funding our project. This will allow our music teacher to engage more students and teach guitar! Her students will be so excited, and my students who wrote the proposal will be so excited as well.

Thank you for taking your time and your donations to help us!

With gratitude,
Mr. Silvis

Keeping the Blues Alive is a 501c3 organization that makes a donation to a school in need of music instruments, supplies, sheet music, and more every week! Your donations help us keep music in schools, while preserving blues heritage. 

In order to keep the ball rolling, we appreciate your donations to keep music education funding alive in schools across the country. If you would like to help us to continue to make an impact on music education in America, click here to make a donation! All donations are fully tax-deductible and go to a GREAT cause! 

You can also check out our SUBMISSIONS page; make sure to send it to your local music teachers if you have a specific project in mind.

Thank you for supporting music education for the next generation!