MIBRARY Final Update
Dear Community,
We did it! Lafayette Community M.I.Brary launched on Monday, July 2, 2018. 19 musical instruments are housed at the Clifton Chenier Center branch of the Lafayette Public Library. Within days of the launch, nearly all instruments were checked out!
We are already looking at adding more instruments to the collection, and we’ve managed to collect more donations since launch, including a keyboard, a guitar amp, a mandolin, and money.
Words can’t express how thankful I am for 24 Hour Citizen Project. Without the event, I may never have come up with this idea. Now, I’m hoping that together with the Acadiana Center for the Arts and the Lafayette Public Library, we’ll produce future Grammy winners!
#musicforeveryone,
Dr. Ryan Cazares
MIBRARY Update #3
Dear Community,
The Lafayette Community M.I.Brary is set to launch on June 27, 2018 with a preview day at Clifton Chenier Center in Lafayette from 5-7PM. Check out the Facebook event here. Lafayette will soon thereafter be able to check instruments out from the Clifton Chenier Center.
We have been extremely busy obtaining final instruments and getting them repaired for launch day. To date, we have spent approximately $2000 on instruments and accessories (i.e., straps, picks, tuners, amps, etc.), but we still have over $5000 left for future growth. We have a surplus due to extra fundraising efforts and donations.
We purposely made this update brief because we’ll have so much more to share after our preview day next week. We are in the home stretch!
Ryan Cazares, O.D. (Team Leader)
MIBRARY Update #2
Dear Community,
Since our last update, Team MIBrary has made tremendous progress. We have an official location: the Downtown Lafayette Public Library! Our launch date is forthcoming, but we anticipate late spring or early summer 2018.
To date, Team MIBrary has collected 2 fiddles, 2 guitar amps, 1 classical guitar, 2 acoustic guitars, 5 electric guitars, 1 lap steel guitar, 3 keyboards, and 1 snare drum all through donations. We’ve learned a better approach to receiving donations: ask people directly! Our instrument drive posted in our last update did not go so well, but when we asked our personal friends and family, people really stepped up and donated many instruments!
We have not used any of the funds from the 24 Hour Citizen Project yet, but should we not be able to obtain electronic drum kits or accordions through donations, we will purchase these. We are also going to communicate with other libraries who lend out musical instruments to have a better idea of if we should set aside funds for maintenance and repair of the instruments.
We are extremely excited to see the project come to fruition. We are hopeful that our next update will include our launch date–or perhaps details from it already being launched!
Ryan Cazares, O.D. (Team Leader)
MIBRARY Update #1
Dear Community,
As you may recall during the 24 Hour Citizen Project, our immediate push following the event was to obtain musical instruments through drives and donations. Since then, we’ve learned that a musical instrument drive is not the best way to obtain donated instruments. The best way is to personally reach out to friends and acquaintances and obtain the instruments my making appointments directly with them. That said, since funding during the 24 Hour Citizen Project, Team MIBrary raised an additional $700 at a benefit concert in September held at Artmosphere. The Al Berard Foundation also donated $2000 to the project. Team MIBrary now has approximately $8000 to spend on musical instruments.
In November 2017, Team MIBrary held a musical instrument donation drive at Downtown Alive! Although we received no donations, we were able to get the word out to the public about our cause. Through efforts of the team members, we have acquired 5 musical instruments (2 keyboards; 3 electric guitars) to start our musical instrument library. Each member has a goal to acquire 5 instruments, making it a total of 20 donated instruments. We will then spend our funds on additional instruments not obtained through donations. Once all instruments have been donated, we will work with the Downtown Library to set up shop! We’ve been updating the library of our progress, and to date, have not spent any funds awarded during the 24 Hour Citizen Project.
Thanks,
Ryan Cazares (Team Leader)