Operation EH

Hello! We are band students in high school from Middle Tennessee. Our band director is a very special person, and we would like to surprise her with something extra special on our last high school band performance. We are the first grade that has made it to graduation that started with her in 5th grade. She has single-handedly built the music program at our school, so we feel like we should give something back to her.

It has come to our attention that our band director is in need of an English horn. She plays oboe in a community band in Middle Tennessee, and has to borrow an Engish horn whenever the pieces call for that instrument. She has 3 or 4 people that she typically borrows an English horn from, but she often has trouble contacting them, and on more than one occasion, they don't respond to her call or emails until a week or so later. Our band director takes her membership in the community band very seriously, and this predicament takes away from her practicing time on difficult music. It is also important to acquire the horn quickly so that she can make sure everything is in working order. Many times she has taken a borrowed English horn to the the local music shop in order for them to fix it, and she pays for the repairs with her own money.

This past February, the community band put on their biggest concert of the year, where some very challenging music is played, and it always features multiple English horn parts. Our band director had an especially difficult time acquiring an English horn this time around, and received it only a few hours before their last rehearsal. The next evening was the night of the performance, and she discovered that something was wrong with the instrument, and she could not get a sound out of it. Luckily, the concert was held at the university close by, and she was able to borrow their only English horn. This horn just happened to be the one she used for her Master's, but it was still a close call.

When we heard about this, we had enough. The band members of the Class of 2015 have decided to buy our band director an English horn. But we can't do this alone! We have minimum wage jobs, at best! We are asking help from the community.

The goal is set at $5,000, but we actually need more than that. English horns are high-end instruments, and we wanted to supply our band director with the best that's out there. We thought it would be good to have this much raised in an online fund by September so we would have enough for a down payment/layaway. This site only allows dated goals to last for 120 days, so we will open another fundraiser in September or October if we have not met the total goal by then. We need to order the instrument in December 2014 so it will arrive in time for our final performance in high school, which is in May 2015.  Thank you for your help!

("Operation EH" a.k.a. "Operation English Horn" is a big secret! We don't want our band director to find out, so we apologize for the vagueness.)

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.