{"id":16745,"date":"2025-08-27T22:41:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T04:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-receives-40000-in-donations-for-band-instruments\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:01:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:01:07","slug":"cortez-middle-school-receives-40000-in-donations-for-band-instruments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-middle-school-receives-40000-in-donations-for-band-instruments\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez Middle School receives $40,000 in donations for band instruments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A nearly $40,000 donation to the Cortez Middle School band program is providing much-needed new instruments, including a tuba and saxophones. (Journal file photo)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma-Cortez Middle School has been awarded a nearly $40,000 donation from the Mr. Holland\u2019s Opus Foundation\u2019s Adopt A School program, becoming the only school in Colorado to be fully funded in the initiative\u2019s pilot phase so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the process, they asked me, \u2018Listen, if money is no object, what would you buy?\u2019 So, I gave them a wish list of instruments we desperately needed, including a couple things that are so expensive that we can\u2019t normally do that,\u201d CMS band teacher Andrew Campo told The Journal<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, the donation will provide new instruments for the school\u2019s band program, some that the school hasn\u2019t been able to buy new or replace in at least 18 years. This year, the band has 270 students registered, more than half the school\u2019s approximately 500 students. One band has 79 students, another 74 and the last 110.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest band I\u2019ve ever had in Cortez,\u201d Campo said. \u201cMore than every other kid in the school is in the band. It\u2019s pretty popular right now \u2026 the timing couldn\u2019t have been better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The donation, valued at $39,982, purchased one baritone saxophone, one \u00be tuba, four trombones, three trumpets, three alto saxophones, three clarinets and four flutes for the program. Out of the entirety of the grant, a $1,000 contribution came from the Van Halen family \u2013 Wolfgang Van Halen, son of Eddie Van Halen. Another donation of $15,000 and $500, both anonymous, contributed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids were pretty much over the moon when they heard about it,\u201d Campo said.<\/p>\n

After receiving approval to accept the donation from the school board, the foundation purchased the instruments, and they will soon be delivered to the school. The foundation purchased the instruments using the grant funds, and did so at a below-market cost through its manufacturer partnerships.<\/p>\n

The Adopt A School program, which was launched last year, selected 100 schools nationwide for its pilot, and CMS was selected. A dedicated webpage on the foundation\u2019s site allowed donors to learn about the school and contribute anonymously or publicly.<\/p>\n

The school also recently received 10 additional instruments from the Bringing Music to Life Foundation in Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s come full circle, as those are the original people who put us in touch with Mr. Holland\u2019s Opus,\u201d Campo said.<\/p>\n

The CMS band will have their first performance of the school year at MCHS\u2019 homecoming parade in early October.<\/p>\n

For more information about the Mr. Holland\u2019s Opus Foundation, visit<\/a> www.mhopus.org.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Contributors gave to Mr. Holland\u2019s Opus Foundation\u2019s Adopt A School program<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,147,28,60,216,559,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-music","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20368,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16745\/revisions\/20368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16745"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}