ROTARACT CLUB

Music is an integral part of Grenada’s culture, and children in Grenada start learning to play instruments at a young age. But when back-to-back hurricanes hit the Caribbean island nation in 2004 and 2005, an unfamiliar silence fell over devastated schools.

The International Fellowship of Rotarian Musicians is bringing the music back. In its debut humanitarian project, it donated US$2,500 to help rebuild the music program at St. Andrew’s Roman Catholic School in Grenville. The school, which serves 500 students ages 5-15, lost all its musical instruments and books in the storms.

"Music inspires us all. It unites our children and enhances their feelings of self-worth and achievement," says Sister Lucy Gabriel, the school’s director. The money helped purchase guitars, violins, music stands, and a partial set of steel pans, an important instrument in Caribbean music.  

Fellowship member Peter Sotheran, of the Rotary Club of Guisborough & Great Ayton, Cleveland, England, presented the funds to the school in a ceremony last year. He also delivered an additional $3,000 and 36 secondhand recorders (wind instruments valued at about $28 each) that his club had collected from donors in England.

"Before I had finished unpacking, the children were experimenting to see what sounds they could produce," says Sotheran, whose club worked with the Rotary Club of Grenada East to rebuild the school’s library.

The International Fellowship of Rotarian Musicians was founded in 1972. Its 400 members organize musical performances at Rotary functions, including RI conventions. As part of its mission to promote musical literacy, the group has started funding other school and community projects similar to the one in Grenada.