Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff of the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, I want to express our sincere appreciation to all who contributed to the Foundation’s relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. I am pleased to report that the Foundation donated more than $300,000 in special grants of new musical instruments – the equivalent of 13 school music programs – to schools throughout the Gulf Coast region that were either directly impacted by the storms or that took in large numbers of evacuees. The students at one of these schools, Salmen High School in Slidell Parish, told us their band instruments were among the things they missed the most. VH1 Save The Music does not normally grant to high schools, but, due to the extenuating circumstances, we replaced all of the band instruments at Salmen.

Additionally, the Foundation anticipated that most of the instruments from the 21 school programs that VH1 Save The Music has restored in the New Orleans area since 1998 had been lost or were severely damaged, and we were committed to raising the necessary funds to completely restore all of these instruments. We were happy to find out, however, that many of these instruments had been preserved in a climate-controlled facility, and VH1 Save The Music is currently working to assume the cost of storing the instruments. The instruments will remain in this facility until the Orleans Parish Public Schools are able to reopen.

We want to extend a very special thank you to our partners at NAMM, the International Music Products Association, who so generously offered a $100,000 matching grant to our Hurricane Relief Efforts. Special thanks also to our friends at Fluid who designated 50 percent of the proceeds from their annual Battle of the Ad Bands to our recovery efforts in New Orleans.

Warm regards,

Paul E. Cothran
Executive Director