Noxon students explore instruments at music camp

In a creative and musical attempt to raise funds, two Noxon High School music students, with the help and guidance of their music teacher, are tutoring elementary school children on how to play a variety of musical instruments. The music tutoring camp is happening Wednesdays in July from noon until 2:30 and each day is dedicated to a different family of instruments.

"Today is woodwind Wednesday and we are just now starting to put together the clarinets and let the kids try playing clarinets," commented Noxon music teacher Sari MacArthur. "We have three elementary students that are here learning how to play different instruments and the high school kids are helping to teach the younger kids."

MacArthur was hoping that a few more students would attend the first Noxon Music Camp so that a one-on-one buddy system could be used. Given the odd number of students in attendance MacArthur decided to alter the format of the camp. "We wanted to have each elementary student paired up with a high school student and have the teenagers tutor the younger children one-on-one. A lot of the high school students are busy during the summer and don't have time to help so we decided to have a single group and the older kids are acting as my teaching assistants," said MacArthur.

Music camp is a new endeavor for the students and faculty of Noxon public schools. Nonetheless people from the community have offered and made donations to help with music class and music camp.

"This is the first year for music camp. Our high school students are raising and saving money so that they can afford to go on more field trips this next year. We have had some great offers from community members who want to donate instruments. We just had someone offer us another piano today but we don't have room for another one unfortunately," MacArthur said. She and her students are always grateful for donated instruments and resources and they greatly appreciate the help. A lot of Noxon music students don't have their own instruments and thanks to generous community members the school has a small stock of instruments that students can borrow. "We have some donated instruments in stock and this allows us to lend them to the children for the school year," MacArthur added.

This event is the result of the high school students brainstorming and looking for creative new ways to raise funds for educational field trips and for the Noxon music scholarship account. The elementary school children had nothing but good to say about the class. "My favorite instrument to play today was the saxophone. My mom is running the camp and I'm happy that I get to spend time with her," said Brielle MacArthur, 10, of Heron.

This event is the result of the high school students brainstorming and looking for creative new ways to raise funds for educational field trips and for the Noxon music scholarship account.

"My favorite instrument so far is the flute. I really like that we are getting to learn how to play different types of instruments," said Lena Oldenburg of Noxon. Lauren McIntire, age 7, said her favorite was the saxophone. "I really like that we get to try different instruments. Our teacher is one of the kindest teachers I know," McIntire added.

Noxon Schools held a brass instrument camp this week. The final installment will be Wednesday, July 27, centered around learning to play the guitar. The camp is open to students age 7 or older. After each day of the camp participants are having a car wash in the parking lot in front of the school for an hour or so and they are also doing a community 50/50 raffle. "This is a win-win because the children get to try out different instruments and get excited about music, and the high school kids gain teaching experience and are able to raise money doing so," said MacArthur. "We are always thankful for donations to our travel account and our scholarship account as well." For more information, call MacArthur at (406)-847-2442.