Keynote Media Seeks Musical Instruments for Students

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Keystone Media Group has launched “Let’s Start a Band!” to help needy students and schools in the Mahoning Valley, Rich Hahn, announced Tuesday.

Hahn is president and CEO of Keystone Media, a marketing firm with offices in the downtown.

Let’s Start a Band is an effort to collect used musical instruments – both band and orchestra — that can still be played and “get them in the hands of young people who can’t afford to buy or rent them,” Hahn said.

Those who have instruments gathering dust in the attic can and wish to donate them can drop them off at Keystone offices in the Commerce Building, 201 E. Commerce St.

The founder of Keystone Media is a graduate of the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University and taught music in public schools before entering marketing.

The initial goal is “two dozen instruments before the holidays,” Hahn said.

Once an instrument is deemed playable, it will be cleaned and given to a band director or a needy family based on a school’s recommendation.

The need for the arts, especially music, is as great as ever despite school systems spending less on them. “Arts funding continues to dry up and poverty is on the rise, a perfect storm for the arts,” Hahn said in a statement. “Many band directors I know, especially those in inner-city and rural districts, are feeling the effect.”

He cited national studies that show music and the arts “are difference makers in a child’s life and it’s time for the public to step in and help.”

To learn more about the program – whether as a donor, band director or school principal – go to this page on Facebook.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.