Waverly, Tennessee – When deadly flooding hit the small town of Tennessee in August, many community members lost their homes and the pace of normalcy. Among the items destroyed were the instruments of the group Waverly Junior High School, which were not a priority to be replaced given the circumstances.
Harmony Sanders, one of the members of the group, has been living with her aunt and cousins since the floods destroyed her family’s home. The seventh grader sleeps in a borrowed bed and played a borrowed clarinet.
“He just doesn’t have the same great vibe as my old one,” she said.
The school band has since received the gift of music. Country music star Vince Gill stepped in with a donation from the Country Music Association Foundation and instrument maker KHS America to give the student group 40 new instruments valued at $ 100,000.
“Each of them has to make a group, be a group,” said Gill. “It’s the best feeling in the world to be connected to something, you know? It’s beautiful when you watch it happen.”
Gill surprised students with the donation at a school assembly earlier this month.
Sanders said she already feels different.
“I think everyone can be happier now and have less weight on their shoulders”,
she said.
The city is still considering a long recovery, but the Kindness reached a high mark in a community that needed to hear one.
Marc Strassmann
