Band departments throughout Foothills School Division, including the band program at Oilfields High School in Black Diamond, are supporting Music Missions Dominica, an Edmonton-based effort to help establish more school bands on the Caribbean Island of Dominica through the donation of refurbished instruments. Foothills' schools are donating almost 200 older, unused band instruments to the cause, including 60 clarinets, 45 flutes, 42 trumpets, 21 trombones and assorted other instruments.
Music Missions Dominica will give these instruments a second life – with the help of the WindShoppe in Edmonton, which repairs all donated instruments for free – while providing students in this third world country with the opportunity to play in a school band.
The school division is in a position to donate these band instruments through a highly successful program initiated in 1991, which enables band students to rent instruments owned by the division for a modest rental fee; 100 per cent of these funds are then turned back into its band programs. As a result, the division's band programs are among the best-equipped in the province. Over time, Foothills School Division has built up a surplus of older instruments that are no longer worth the increasing repair costs to keep them functioning properly for local students.
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