MusiCounts is thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2022 MusiCounts Band Aid Program! To celebrate our 25th Anniversary, we’re taking the celebration nationwide by diving deep into the program’s investment in each region of Canada, looking at both the impact we’ve made over time and the challenges we’ll tackle in the future. Yesterday, we announced the deserving recipients from Atlantic Canada, and today we’re celebrating those in Central Canada.

The MusiCounts Band Aid Program is awarding $305,500 to 27 schools in Central Canada! The recipients are listed below. Over the course of 25 years, MusiCounts has invested $5,815,000 to 598 schools in Ontario and Quebec.

Schools in Central Canada are a shining example of what MusiCounts is seeing across the country: music education is a dynamic, innovative practice that can extend far beyond concert band, recorder ensembles, and Orff programs. The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a tremendous amount of innovation in music education; now more than ever, we're seeing music teachers embrace new ways of approaching music education to meet student needs and interests, and they’re using the MusiCounts Band Aid Program to help make these ideas a reality.

One such school is Sunnyview Middle School in Brampton, ON. The school - which has a $0 annual budget for music - serves a large Caribbean student population. With the help of a MusiCounts Band Aid Program grant, the teacher will be introducing a brand new steel pan ensemble to help students engage more closely with their cultural heritage and community. Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School in Thunder Bay, ON, will be using the MusiCounts Band Aid Program grant to introduce a radio station program so students - attending the school from 24 First Nations communities in the area - can broadcast their music back home to family and loved ones in remote Northern Ontario. École spécialisée de l’Envol in Québec City, QC serves youth with cognitive exceptionalities, many of whom are hypo- and hyper-sensitive to sound. They’ll be using the MusiCounts Band Aid Program grant to make lessons more accessible for each individual student by replacing the almost 30 year old sound system and to purchase more keyboards.

MusiCounts is so proud to have contributed to the success and sustenance of music programming in the Central provinces, but there is still so much to do. After 25 years of making investments through the MusiCounts Band Aid Program, we’re still only able to support 1 in every 5 schools that ask for our help. It will take a chorus of music education champions to help close this gap. Click here to learn about MusiCounts’ 25th Anniversary and help us raise funds for the MusiCounts Band Aid Program.

• École spécialisée de l'Envol, Québec, QC
• Riverview Elementary School, Verdun, QC
• École Léon-Guilbault, Laval, QC
• Sainte-Claire Brossard, Brossard, QC
• École secondaire Jean-Grou, Montréal, QC
• Mariboisé, Saint-Jérôme, QC
• Pontiac High School, Shawville, QC
• École Notre-Dame du Sacré-Coeur, Barraute, QC
• Jacques-Cartier, Sept-Îles, QC
• La Tuque High School, La Tuque, QC
• Voyageur Memorial High School, Mistissini, QC
• Mary Street Community School, Oshawa, ON
• Sunnyview Middle School, Brampton, ON
• McKellar Park Central Public School, Thunder Bay, ON
• St. Angela, Etobicoke, ON
• Yorkdale Secondary School, Toronto, ON
• Broadacres Jr School, Toronto, ON
• Clark Boulevard Public School, Brampton, ON
• St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School, St. Catharines, ON
• Elmbank Junior Middle Academy, Etobicoke, ON
• St. Mary Catholic Elementary School , Welland, ON
• St. Timothy, Toronto, ON
• Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, Toronto, ON
• Prince of Wales Public School, Belleville, ON
• Ryerson Middle School, Hamilton, ON
• Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School, Thunder Bay, ON
• Northbrae Public School, London, ON