VH1 Save the Music comes to Scott Middle School in Flint

FLINT, Michigan — And, the band plays on at Flint’s Scott Middle School, thanks to a $35,000 grant from VH1 Save The Music Foundation and jewelry-maker Alex and Ani. 

The foundations gave the school everything it needed for a comprehensive music program — instruments, music stands, and teaching books. Scott Middle School opened for its inaugural year this fall, reopening a shuttered former elementary school building on Lapeer Road.

“Students need an outlet. They need to find where they can be themselves and express themselves and music is a great way to do that. Not everybody is built for sports, not everybody is built for academics, but playing an instrument is a lifelong skill,” the school band director Marianne Forys told ABC12. 

Save the Music’s long-standing partnership with Alex and Ani’s Charity by Design program is funding the grant, which was awarded to Flint’s Scott Middle School after a vote at Save the Music’s 20th Anniversary Gala last year.

Since 2014, Alex and Ani has raised more than $840,000 to support Save the Music’s mission to restore music programs in America’s public schools through sales of its Charity by Design collection including the Sweet Melody charm bracelet, the Peace Love Music charm bracelet, and the newly-launched Music Is Love charm bracelet.

Over the last 20 years, the VH1 Save The Music Foundation has given $56 million worth of new musical instruments to more than 2,100 public schools nationwide.