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Abbotsford Senior receives 'band aid' grant

School's music program gets four new instruments, band Marianas Trench performs for students
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Marianas Trench lead singer Josh Ramsay belts out a song during a performance at Abbotsford Senior Secondary during the Musicounts funding announcement on Monday.


Abbotsford Senior Secondary was buzzing with anticipation all day on Monday.

Not only was the school getting the chance to celebrate being named a recipient of the Musicounts Band Aid program, but Juno award winning band Marianas Trench was set to perform in front of the students to mark the occasion.

Abby Senior music teacher Nancy Hasiuk sent in the application to receive the $10,000 grant, and was overjoyed to see the school get the funding.

"What an honour for us," she said. "The moment I found out we won I jumped up and down, I was so excited."

Hasiuk explained that many of the school's instruments have quite a few miles on them.

"Some of our instruments are from as far back as the 1950s," she said. "They still have a beautiful sound but they are quite bashed up. With this funding we can have some functional instruments."

The brand new arrivals to the Abby Senior music program include: a baritone saxophone, a bass clarinet, a tenor saxophone and a double french horn.

Hasiuk added that the new instruments will give her students the opportunity to make more beautiful music.

"I deliberately got the expensive instruments that would cost me a year's budget each," she said. "It gives us as a band the chance to expand into new instruments and they will be very essential to our band. Now the kids get to live a bit of their dream."

The event was hosted by Nira Arora from Virgin Radio, and saw speeches from Hasiuk and representatives from MusiCounts. There was also a performance from the Abbotsford Senior drumline team.

Marianas Trench then hit the stage and played a total of four songs for their screaming fans. It was a homecoming of sorts for the band's drummer Ian Casselman, a former W.J. Mouat student.

Following the performance, the new instruments were revealed to students.



Ben Lypka

About the Author: Ben Lypka

I joined the Abbotsford News in 2015.
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