After the March 26 tornado struck Newnan High School's Fine Arts building, water poured into the building for days, ruining nearly everything inside. That included decades of Newnan High School band photos and memorabilia, marching band uniforms – and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of instruments.
While most band members keep their concert instruments with them at home, the larger marching band instruments, particularly the marching brass and drumline instruments, are owned by the school and are stored there. All the brass instruments, other than trumpets, are owned by the school, said Band Director Joshua Boyd.
A total loss
"Our building was deemed a total loss, which means everything inside the fine arts building, at this time, is not recoverable," Boyd said. "All the band uniforms, all the school instruments, and a lot of Newnan's band history."
Boyd said that immediately after the storm the building had to be secured. Then there was a time that he was able to get into the building, escorted by insurance company representatives, to see what he could salvage.
He showed up – too optimistically as it turned out – with a trailer. "I left with two cardboard boxes," Boyd said. "The water had been pouring into the building for days. The woodwinds were sitting in water, they had mold inside."
Photos, including years of composite photos of band members, were sitting in water, too.
How to make band camp?
Boyd's major concern was figuring out how to replace all the marching instruments in time for band camp the third week in July.
It seemed impossible.
"Even if I had all the money in the world," it would be hard to get those instruments ordered, produced and shipped in time for band camp – especially with manufacturing and shipping slowdowns due to COVID-19.
And then Yamaha stepped in.
"Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corporation in Newnan reached out within days to ask what they could do," Boyd said.
A lot of band parents work at the local Yamaha, he said.
While Yamaha makes musical instruments – and many other things – they don't do it in Newnan. The local plant makes recreational items including Wave Runners, ATVs, ORVs and golf carts.
When Yamaha MMC reached out, he told him he knew musical instruments were a separate division, but his biggest concern was getting the Marching Cats on the field by fall.
Eventually, insurance money will be available to replace instruments, but the insurance process can take a long time – and then there is the time to actually get the instruments.
"Within a couple of days, Yamaha had me on the phone with their representatives here in Newnan and the representatives from the instrument divisions just a day after that," Boyd said.
A representative from Yamaha came to a meeting with school system employees and the insurance agency "so that Yamaha could help be a part of the entire solution of getting the marching band back on the ground," Boyd said.
The company agreed to provide loaner instruments to get the Marching Cats to band camp and on the field, until the school can purchase instruments with their insurance money. And once it's time to buy, Yamaha dealer Ken Stanton Music will help with the marching instruments, as well as the replacement of some concert instruments. Ken Station is going to pass on special discounts to help the band afford them, Boyd said.
Some of the largest instruments are incredibly expensive. An E-Flat Contralto clarinet, for instance, can cost $20,000, and the school owned two, Boyd said. They were bought in the 80s.
"A lot of our equipment was old – because our kids take really good care of it," Boyd said.
It's estimated that the instruments and uniforms lost have a retail value of $400,000, Boyd said.
"It's really amazing what Yamaha is doing, it's just above and beyond," he said. "And they asked for nothing in return. We obviously are going to try to buy everything, as much as we can, from Yamaha, but they were very clear that we didn't have to. They just wanted to do this for our community.
"To me, what was most significant about it is that it's a huge deal and they asked for nothing," he said. "People just cannot understand how amazing it is for our kids, because our kids needed this. Our band will take the field this fall because of Yamaha."
Help from all directions
While Yamaha was the biggest helper, it certainly wasn't the only one. Many NHS band students also lost their personal instruments when their homes were damaged.
There were 20 to 30 band members who lost their personal instruments, Boyd said. The Northgate High School Band Boosters and Band Director Alan Armstrong put together an instrument donation campaign.
And every single band student who needed an instrument got one, Boyd said. Instruments were donated from all over the country, and there were enough to help band students from Smokey Road and Evans Middle schools whose instruments were damaged in the storm. The Newnan Rotary Club also made a huge donation of instruments, Boyd said.
Some of the woodwinds needed new pads or some other work, and Big Note Music Mobile Instrument Repair took care of it.
"They said, 'If you guys will get them donated, we'll do the repair work for free,'" Boyd said. "They would pick up from Northgate, drive to Smokey Road, and they would sit there for hours repairing instruments to get them into the hands of the kids. It was pretty amazing."
It meant so much
Two days after the tornado, there was a drumline and color guard competition. The drumline had no equipment and neither did the color guard.
So the Northgate and East Coweta High School bands pitched in to share and make sure the Newnan band members could compete. "Northgate's color guard did their competition, came off the floor and passed their stuff to our girls. Our girls did their show with someone else's equipment," Boyd said.
"It meant so much to our kids that they were able to get out there and do that," he said.
"And we were competing against them. Even 48 hours after the tornado, our band didn't skip a beat, at all."
So many others also helped out in ways large and small – so many, it's hard to keep up with them all.
"Coweta has always been bigger than any individual school. I have never seen people come together like I've seen them come together," Boyd said. "It's really been amazing."
The NHS band has been practicing at Smokey Road since their normal practice space is off limits.
And when they couldn't practice – and didn't have instruments – band members were busy volunteering. They cleaned up yards, volunteered at Bridging the Gap and Foundation Church and set up cots for an overnight shelter.
"We were doing service projects all over Coweta for about two weeks. Every time I sent a message, we had kids show up," Boyd said.
There was a concert scheduled for early May, but Boyd said he didn't think they would be able to do it.
One day they were out cleaning up yards and students asked him about it. He told them he didn't think it would happen.
"One of them said, ‘You don't understand. This is all I have,’" Boyd said. And that's when the instrument donation campaign started.
"Within two weeks we had enough horns – borrowed from East Coweta and Northgate and Evans and Smokey Road – and we started having band practices,” Boyd said. And May 3, they had a concert.
They started marching practice – mostly marching, not much playing – in the parking lot of the CEC. But two weeks ago, "we were able to move back to the band parking lot at NHS. It was really special," Boyd said.
Parents came out to watch on lawn chairs. "I saw people from the community that don't even have kids in band stopping by to say hello," he said. "We had students, especially our upperclassmen, with tears in their eyes.
"It was really special to feel like they were coming home."
The Link LonkJune 02, 2021 at 06:41AM
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Yamaha, Big Note, EC, NGHS and others step up to get Newnan band playing again - Newnan Times-Herald
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