St. Louis Community Service Network

Well, maybe that's not such a good name. We're open for suggestions. Whatever you want to call it...it's started...

For some time now, I've been giving guitar lessons. It's great helping willing students learn to play. Seeing their improvement is reward enough. So I don't charge for lessons. However, we've come up with a new wrinkle on how to channel the resource.

Rather than having students pay me for lessons, I ask that they make a financial contribution to the school band program of their choice. We set up an acknowledgement form that is submitted to the band program along with the contribution and a description of the donated service, in this case: music lessons.

The vision is that the network of volunteer service providers expands, and that worthwhile community resources benefit, whether school band programs, neighborhood improvement efforts, or other worthwhile community-based organizations, projects or programs.

Presently, we have 6 students taking guitar lessons through the program. With the average cost of private music lessons running around $20 for 1/2 hour, the potential contributions to area music programs is substantial.

If you're interested in learning more about this project, we'd like to hear from you. Long term, our goal is to expand the program through increasing the exchange of services and donations.