This week, I hope to provide some hope and make you smile.

This is not about the Wallaceburg Concert Band, but it starts there.

We used to rehearse in my former music room at Wallaceburg District Secondary School.

Most locals know the story of what happened next. Someone at the board level decided to turn the former music room into what is now referred to as “The Hub.”

This decision forced our WCB out of WDSS as there were no other suitable rooms for us to rehearse in.

We have since landed in a much better place and that part of the story has had a happy ending.

Back when the WCB first started, Rob Lee helped us negotiate a three-year agreement with the Lambton Kent District School Board to temporarily use the no-longer needed instruments.

This would allow our fledgling organization to get a running start while we searched for funds to purchase our own instruments. The agreement bought us some time.

The agreement was a win-win situation. It was a win for us because we could offer large, expensive instruments that were beyond our ability to purchase at the time and was a win for the LKDSB because we agreed to maintain the instruments and most importantly, use them.

When instruments are unused, pistons seize, tuning slides freeze, the adhesive holding pads in-place dries and they start to fall out, and corks shrink from lack of moisture. But we used them, keeping them in playing condition.

Once our three-year agreement concluded, the instruments had to be returned, just as we were about to attempt to negotiate an extension of the use agreement. We gathered the instruments and returned them. Since then, the instruments have been stored........

© Sarnia Observer