History
The Music Mission’s founder, Leah Witthuhn, found a passion for music at a young age. Many generous people helped foster her calling, and music was Leah’s refuge during tough times. At the age of 14 she decided it was time to find a way to pay it forward.
With the help of her parents, friends, and community leaders, she ended up creating The Music Mission — a non-profit organization that gives the gift of music. Since then, Leah has grown up, moved away to college and passed leadership of the organization over to her former guitar instructor, Jason Busse, who has created a board of directors to run the organization.
The Music Mission is a way for the Fox Valley community to donate instruments and lessons to deserving children. We mainly work with children of low income families but we also occasionally provide merit-based gifts.
Mission
We provide assistance to families without the financial means to access musical instruments and lessons.
Our focus is the distribution of purchased or donated musical instruments to children who do not have access to them. Sometimes this is a direct donation, while other times we will give the instrument to a music teacher or school who can provide it to a child.
Another important part of what we do is providing music lessons to those who are not able to pay for them. We help provide the necessary practice materials, and arrange for a qualified teacher. The music teachers may volunteer, offer discounted rates, or receive tuition from the music mission in the form of a scholarship.
How It Works
We attempt to re-home donated instruments where possible but sometimes we’ll purchase an instrument for the student. There is no cost to the generous people who are donating these instruments, and most instruments will be considered a gift. Larger more expensive instruments will be considered on loan until the student completes a period of six months of lessons.
The Music Mission will cover the costs for any necessary repairs or maintenance to ensure that donated instruments are playable. The requirements that recipients must meet include residence in the fox valley area of Wisconsin and be a family in need of assistance. We define a family in need as a family unit with a household income at or below 2.5 times the federal poverty guidelines.
Legal
The Music Mission is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, designated as a public charity by the IRS. You can verify this by searching for our EIN, 47-2276435, in the IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Check Tool.
Special Thanks
There have been so many generous people who have helped us along the way. We are extremely thankful for the support we have received from the following people and organizations:
- Marc Golde at Rock Garden Studio
- DeDe Heid at Heid Music
- Jim Marks at Fox Cities Sign
- Dave Willems at Mile of Music
- Cory Chisel at Mile of Music