Music grant allows students to play ‘Rolls Royce of an instrument’

$97,000 from Music Drives Us to purchase new instruments, expand program

April 28, 2026

By Jessi Hardy

STONINGTON–School Union 76—consisting of Brooklin, Sedgwick, Deer Isle and Isle Au Haut—has received a $97,000 grant from Music Drives Us, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization, to purchase new instruments and expand the district's music program.

Music Director Sarah Alt shows off a newly purchased xylophone. Photo by Jessie Hardy.

Music Director Sara Alt said she shot for the moon when she applied for the grant.

When Alt first arrived in Union 76, the music program was in disarray, she said. She had come to the area from the midwest, where she taught and led a band of upwards of 178 students. Here, the music room was filled with old and unusable instruments and the band room was unorganized.

“There were some leaking issues in the closet where they were storing a lot of instruments,” Alt said. “I think that did a lot of damage to things that have pads and seals.” 

Over the years, Alt reorganized the band room and identified instruments that were playable or needed repair and reorganized the new band room. Alongside her colleague Beth Kyzer, another music instructor, Alt spends a lot of time cleaning and fixing instruments.

Alt said that the schools have received instruments through donations over the years but lacked the resources to keep expanding.

Thanks to the grant from Music Drives Us, Alt received 40 new instruments and donated broken ones back to the organization. Music Drives Us partners with Falcetti Music, an instrument company outside of Boston, to repair broken instruments and offer credits for future work. Alt called it a “great program.”

“For things that we don’t want to keep, they add them to their collection, repair them and resell them as used,” Alt said.

The new instruments allow Alt to round out the district’s offerings.

“Some instruments we already owned. We have a slew of trumpets, a decent amount of flutes, none of which really play well,” Alt said. “We [now] have violins and violas, in a couple different sizes, two baritone and tenor saxophones.” 

The new instruments will increase student participation across all four towns. Photo by Jessi Hardy.

Other new instruments include an upright bass and cellos, orchestra chime, xylophones, a tuba and many more to bring all elements of a band together. The new instruments, including those that make up a full orchestral complement, will allow the program to establish new ensembles and increase student participation across all four towns.

“I’m giving everyone a turn to experience what [playing on] a Rolls Royce of an instrument feels like,” Alt said.

The work to obtain the grant was time consuming but paid off. Alt and Lynne Witham, a school board member and seasoned grant writer, worked together on collecting data, writing and describing the state of the music program. The impact of the award has been immediate.

“It feels really different to kids when they play on an instrument that’s really well set up. They find success easier and that motivates them to want to keep going, to practice a little harder,” Alt said. 

“I’ve had quite a few kids who aren’t in the band come running down and ask, ‘Can I try one of these?’ Which is really fun.”