Bringing music to children
West Valley Kiwanis members make music happen.
Among many service projects, the 13-member club places more than 90 violins in the hands of kids who can’t afford them. The club also sponsors free group fiddle lessons for all ages on Thursday nights at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church at 26th Avenue and Pines Road.
“Our dream would be never to have children not be able to play music because they can’t afford an instrument or lessons,” said Red Weiler, a West Valley Kiwanis member since 1973.
“We also support a young girl doing singing lessons, and she’s doing so great. It’s so rewarding.”
The Kiwanis fiddle kids periodically perform at senior citizen retirement centers and nursing homes.
“Last year, we helped the Ferris (High School) orchestra get to Italy. They had a chance to play together with some Italian kids, and music is an international language. There’s a need for these kids to go to a foreign country. They can’t talk in words to each other, but they can sit down and play music together.”
The club also provides music camp scholarships and assists the West Valley High School band and band boosters with fundraisers.
A club brochure cites several reasons for youth musical support: Playing an instrument reshapes the brain, improves vocabulary development and helps children achieve higher grades and score higher on standardized tests.
In addition to helping boost music, the club backs numerous other community programs, including the Ronald McDonald House, the Evergreen Club, the food bank, COPS Northeast, Palouse Art Camp, a book bank for Success by 6, Camp Sweyolakan and areawide Kiwanis programs known as Lend-A-Crib and Paint-A-Helmet, offering free children’s bike helmets.
“There are some projects that all the Kiwanis clubs support,” Weiler said. “We’re all like a big family. When we need help, we call, and they call us.”
Kiwanis International, a community service organization since 1915, supports projects that strengthen communities and serve children.
The West Valley group decided to take on support for kids playing the violin in 1998 after two local musicians invited group members to a fiddle workshop for kids. There, members saw the need for violins for kids who could not afford them.
West Valley residents who are interested in Kiwanis can attend a weekly Tuesday meeting to find out more about the club. The group raises most of its funds by helping the Longhorn Barbecue during Pig Out in the Park and the fair. Members also assist at the Reinland Auction throughout the year.
The group needs donations of instruments, mainly violins of various sizes.
The program sometimes helps families when very young children start violin and, for example, need a quarter-size instrument that they’ll quickly outgrow.
“If you think of violins like shoes, you have to consider if a kid’s going to grow out of a violin. It starts at 1/16th and goes to 1/10 and 1/8, 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4, then full-size,” Weiler said.
Sometimes, Weiler is able to get a violin of a certain size donated just in time for the next kid who needs it.