PIE asks islanders to pick up the phone again this fall

Published 1:30 am Thursday, September 28, 2023

A more than 35-year-old fall tradition will soon play out on Vashon — an old-fashioned phonathon conducted by the nonprofit, Partners in Education (PIE), taking place from Oct. 9 to 12.

Through this still remarkably effective fundraising tool, PIE will ask the community for donations large and small to help put money directly in the hands of teachers and educators — those closest to students.

Last fall, PIE awarded 48 grants submitted by educators, totaling over $52,000, funding books for all three district libraries, a tie-dye party for all Chautauqua students and teachers, plants and gardening tools for the high school’s exceptional needs gardening program, dissection equipment for the Student Link science lab, robotics equipment, field trips, guest artists, and much, much more.

Grants, ranging in size from $150 to $5,000, have also helped music programs in Vashon’s public schools thrive.

When Britt Dahlgren took the position of band director for the school district’s middle and high schools in 2019, one of her first tasks was to take inventory of several long and tall storage shelves, housing more than 100 school-owned musical instruments.

Dahlgren knew the instruments had gotten a lot of use. However, the aging collection of much-loved, much-used, and some downright exhausted instruments was in urgent need of over-due reconditioning and repairs.

With a grant from Vashon Partners in Education (PIE), the band director got to work.

During several shifts, she and a repair specialist from Ted Brown Music in Tacoma sorted through the district’s collection of instruments to determine the condition of flutes, clarinets, bassoons, saxophones, cornets, trumpets, horns, mellophones, trombones, euphoniums, tubas, a sousaphone, piccolos, oboes, and tubas in the collection.

Those that were rated as being in playing condition were then sorted further: “Adjust,” “Functional,” “Clean,” and “Overhaul” — and shipped off to be repaired.

PIE’s support of band and music programs in the schools stretches back decades.

Starting in 1987, now-retired teacher Carolyn Candy obtained support from PIE to build, over several years, a collection of musical instruments that eventually allowed entire classrooms of Chautauqua Elementary School students to play together.

Vashon High School’s popular guitar-building class, kick-started with a PIE grant in 2018, now has standing as a Career and Technical Education (CTE) class and receives separate funding as such.

Having instruments available means students can try various instruments without committing to an expensive purchase before knowing it’s the right one, Dahlgren said, adding that having a variety of working instruments allows district schools to offer a rich music curriculum.

Dahlgren currently teaches 70 students in three ensemble groups: the beginner sixth-grade Mustangs, the seventh- and eighth-grade middle school Symphonic Band, and the high school Wind Ensemble.

The next PIE grant up for Dahlgren, perhaps? The high school drumline needs replacing – having taken a literal beating for many years now.

Music is known to have profoundly beneficial effects on learning and development – on skills such as listening, pattern recognition, and language, as well as on emotional development. Music programs also provide community and allow students to participate in something greater than themselves. Sometimes, students have to learn to cooperate with people they don’t get along with.

And sometimes, Dahlgren pointed out, friendships are forged that last a lifetime.

PIE is an all-volunteer grassroots organization. Except for administrative costs, all donations from the community go to the classroom.

PIE encourages everyone to pick up the phone and help support teachers and students in Vashon schools.

Marie Koltchak is on the board of Vashon Partners in Education. For more information on the organization or to donate online, visit vashonpie.org.