Year-end Letter from Board Chair Paul Mahder
Dear Friends,
There are few things more satisfying than helping transform, educate and add enjoyment to a person’s life with the unifying and uplifting power of music.
Healdsburg Jazz has presented world-class jazz concerts and an interactive forum for music education in Sonoma County for 20 consecutive years. To date, over 18,000 students have participated in our free music education programs that serve students in the Healdsburg area and Sonoma County.
We are writing today to ask your help in supporting our mission – to bring jazz performance, an annual festival and quality music education programs to our culturally underserved community – because we truly cannot accomplish it without generous gifts from people like you.
There is an acute need to provide these programs to high school students countywide and to elementary and middle school students in Healdsburg and Geyserville, which are rural and known for their diversity and low income levels. While 43.6% of Sonoma County students qualify for free or reduced price meals, a federal measure of poverty, the rates are substantially higher in Healdsburg (52.62%) and Geyserville (57.2%).
“Healdsburg Jazz gave me hope. I felt better whenever I went to a jazz class, more positive. I sing to comfort myself,” says Kaylani R., age 15
Please know that whatever you can give to support the work on stage, in the classroom and in the community will go a long way—and it will be very special because you cared to give it. Healdsburg Jazz cannot happen without YOU!
Only 27% of ticket sales cover the cost of our annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival. By making a gift, you will partner with Healdsburg Jazz in enriching our community and exposing the next generation to the power of jazz music and the joy of self-expression.
With appreciation,
Paul Mahder, Board Chair
Healdsburg Jazz
P.S. Please consider what your gift can mean to a person who is culturally underserved, a student or an aspiring jazz musician. Go to www.healdsburgjazzfestival.org/support/donate.