Grant injects Brazilian flavour into St. Francis band program

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman on May 20, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Students at St. Francis Junior High School will soon have the opportunity to learn how to play Brazilian percussion instruments, purchased thanks to a grant received Thursday.
Band teacher Kyle Harmon said he has been working on growing and diversifying the band program since he started working at St. Francis Jr. High School eight years ago.
Thanks to the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta’s Community Priorities Grant of $4,300 he is now able to purchase instruments to establish a Brazilian percussion ensemble at the school.
“We are the only school in Lethbridge to have such a program,” said Harmon.  
He said the purchase has been possible thanks to the grant and companion funding from Devon Dempsey, St. Francis Junior High School principal.
“She gave us funds to purchase instruments and then the Community Foundation completed the process so this is a wonderful thing for us,” said Harmon.
He said this will help diversity the program and offer more opportunities for students to choose from.
“We have a concert band here, but we find we sometimes don’t get the amount of kids in that, so we want to diversify our programs and get all sorts of kids regardless of background, experience, or access to instruments. We want to get them playing,” said Harmon.
He said the connection with the community is really important not only with the school community but the community at large and his goal is to get students performing in all kinds of events for the community.
“We have a steel band that I’d love to send out into the world and be for hire and play events and functions and things like that,” said Harmon.
He said he wants to provide as many opportunities as he can for his students.
“As a musician I’ve had so many good opportunities, I met my wife playing music, I’ve been on little stages and really big stages and as a music teacher I see the value in that trying to get kids in front of instruments to perform,” said Harmon.
Associate principal Darren Miller who is in charge of option selections also sees the value of having instrument options for students at the school.
“What I’ve noticed over the years is kids not having access to instruments, so with these types of grants that Kyle is willingly going out and getting them, gets instruments in kids’ hands and that’s always a good thing with our Fine Arts school that we have here,” said Miller.
Harmon said the instruments were purchased through Long & McQuade in Lethbridge but are being shipped from Germany, and they are estimated to arrive at the end of the school year and he hopes that the students have the opportunity to unpack them.
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