NMS Student Donates Saxophone

By Eliza Hallabeck

Months after his bar mitzvah, Evan Isaacs, an eighth grade student at Newtown Middle School, has handed his school a donation: a soprano saxophone.

Evan has been working to raise the money for a tenor saxophone since his bar mitzvah as an effort to give back to his community, and after six months he raised enough money to purchase the instrument.

 Last year when Evan and his mother, Robin Isaacs, were trying to come up with ideas for what he could do to give back to the community, Evan thought about the one missing instrument at NMS.

“I chose this because I love music,” said Evan, “and I love jazz.”

Mrs Isaacs said Evan came up with the idea on his own, and she decided he could raise the money to buy a soprano saxophone for the school.

There was more work in the process than they originally thought. In order to raise money, Evan could not be on school property and a formal letter had to be written to the Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson and to the Board of Education.

Mrs Isaacs said Evan set out to work quickly.

He went to Dunkin’ Donuts, Bagelman, the Ice Cream Shop, and Hot Shots, all in Newtown. He stood outside asking for donations. Dunkin’ Donuts was the most profitable spot, according to Evan.

Evan said the saxophone cost $1,000, and raising the money took almost six months.

Many of Evan’s friends helped by donating money, and during one of his lacrosse games a mother of a friend gave a good amount to the fund.

Evan said he met many people while asking for donations. While standing outside Dunkin’ Donuts one day, Evan said one man asked him to name as many tenor saxophone players that he could by name. If Evan could do that, the man said he would give Evan $15 for every musician that he could name.

The man ended up donating $45 for the new saxophone, Evan said.

While asking for donations outside of the Ice Cream Shop on Church Hill, Evan said another man told him about a friend of his who was a music teacher in town.

“He must have called his friend,” said Mrs Isaacs, “because he came over and gave Evan money.”

NMS has three main saxophones, but Evan said the missing soprano saxophone was something the school needed. The soprano saxophone is the last of the four possible types of saxophones that the school needs.

“What’s the point of having all the other ones without the highest pitch one?” Evan asked.

On September 15, Evan brought the saxophone to the school and presented it to NMS Principal Diane Sherlock. NMS music teacher Mark Mahoney and Creative Music Center of Monroe director Liz Reisman were also there to see Evan donate the instrument.

“I’m really so impressed with the initiative,” said Ms Sherlock.

Mr Mahoney said rental companies do not rent out these specific saxophones, and if students wanted to play it before this, they would have to purchase one.

“Through Evan’s hard work we’ll have a way to remember him for years,” said Mr Mahoney.

While Evan finishes out his last year at the middle school, he will be playing the saxophone, but after he leaves to be a student at Newtown High School, the saxophone will stay behind as a gift to the school.

Donations from parents happen occasionally, according to Ms Sherlock, but donations from students are rare.

“We are notifying the Board of Education so they can officially recognize the gift,” said Ms Sherlock.

Since Evan had to write a letter to the superintendent and to the Board of Ed, his donation will have to be officially recognized before it can be finalized as a donation to the school.

“A couple people we know and a couple of my friends donated money, too,” said Evan, when asked if anyone helped him with the effort to raise money for the instrument. He also said his parents helped him a lot.

The Creative Music Center in Monroe helped Evan to find contacts that could help him purchase the instrument for less than it would normally cost.

Evan has been playing jazz music since fifth grade when he started playing for the band at his school, and when he was 8 he started taking lessons to play the piano.

“I want to keep on playing,” said Evan. “Not just as a hobby.”

Evan’s older sisters also gave back to the community, according to Mrs Isaacs, but she wanted Evan to do something different with his effort. One of his sisters donated young adult books to the C.H. Booth Library.

Evan said he already knows what he plans to do when it is time for him to go to college.

“I’m thinking about going to Johns Hopkins University for Medical Science,” he said. Science has been one of his favorite academics in school since the seventh grade, he said, because he got to dissect a lamb’s heart in class. 

Looking back on the effort to raise the donations, Evan said he would not have done it any other way.