CPR CLASSICAL: YOUR DONATED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ARE HEADED TO SCHOOLS!

Story by Karla Walker

Every year, the Bringing Music to Life Instrument Drive holds a drawing for the few tubas they have to give away.

"We get more requests for tubas than we have tubas, so we do a drawing to see where they will go," says outgoing BMTL Executive Director Steve Blatt.

And every year for the last eight years, Melanie Hawthorne Long entered the drawing. Long teaches at Horizon Middle School in Colorado Springs, a Title I school.

"Every year I get super excited, but I haven't won. I have about 250 kids in band, and I told them to send me all of their good tuba vibes today."

This year, BMTL had three tubas to give away. Long waited patiently. Her school wasn't picked for the first tuba. Or the second. But then, the third name was announced: Horizon Middle School.

With all the enthusiasm of an audience member winning a spot on "The Price is Right," Long danced her way down to the stage to collect her tuba. She shouted, "EIGHT YEARS! I've been trying for a tuba for eight years!"

"I have two eighth-grade band students who want to play the tuba, and I told them, 'The only way I can put both of you on it is if I win this tuba.' I was going to have to tell one of them that they couldn't play it this year, but now I get to tell both of them yes!"

Horizon Middle School was just one of 46 schools receiving over 600 repaired instruments from Bringing Music to Life.

Read the full story here links to https://www.cpr.org/2025/08/20/your-donated-musical-instruments-are-headed-to-schools/