$1,500 donated to Ironwood Area Schools band program

By ZACHARY MARANO

zmarano@yourdailyglobe.com

Ironwood – The committee for Bucketfest, a charity music festival held in Ontonagon, donated $1,500 to the Ironwood Area Schools band program on Thursday. The funds will be used for repairing old instruments and purchasing new ones.

Bucketfest started in 2016 and is held in memory of Jim “Bucket” Koski, an area resident who died in a motorcycle accident in 2005. This year’s festival was held on July 30 and 31, and raised more than $5,000, committee member Rachel Nowicki said.

The festival typically raises money for the Jim Koski Scholarship fund for students at Ontonagon Area Schools, but the Bucketfest committee received approval from Koski’s father to donate the money from this year’s festival as they see fit.

Committee member Brian Yaklyvich said they wanted to do something different with the money this year because there was so much money in the scholarship already and they wanted to give something back to the community and see immediate results.

“In previous years, we had given the money to Jim’s dad and he was the one who put it in a scholarship fund. We just knew that we dumped over $10,000 in the scholarship fund with nothing to show for it. … We wanted to actually see it go to use,” Yaklyvich said.

The Bucketfest committee decided to donate to the band program at Ironwood Area Schools this year because Nowicki saw a need there. As a substitute teacher and paraprofessional at the school, she sat in on K-12 band teacher Kevin McBrayer’s class at the beginning of the school year. She noticed that many of the school’s instruments were not working.

“They selected the band this year primarily because when I was demoing instruments for students in fifth and sixth grade at the beginning of the year and we were choosing instruments, I had to go through two or three flutes before I found one that played really well,” McBrayer said.

While she was sitting in on his class, Nowicki said she saw that McBrayer has a passion for music and wants to teach it to his students. When the committee started discussing what to do with the money, she proposed they donate to the band program.

Donating the Bucketfest funds to the school’s band program is also consistent with Koski’s memory because he was active in the music scene.

McBrayer said that the money will mostly be used for new clarinets and flutes, and instrument repair. He said that some parts are coming off and need to be soldered. Others might need new parts and some of the valves need to be reshaped.

The Bucketfest committee plans to donate another $1,500 to Ontonagon Area Schools for their band program. Nowicki said that the school just hired a band instructor at their last board meeting and the donation will help their band program. She said that she called the school on Thursday and will schedule a meeting to hand them a check as well.