{"id":205029,"date":"2026-03-25T05:43:35","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/205029\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T05:43:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T05:43:35","slug":"westchase-eighth-graders-instrument-drive-unites-tampa-bay-for-music-education-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/205029\/","title":{"rendered":"Westchase Eighth Grader&#8217;s Instrument Drive Unites Tampa Bay for Music Education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cameron Cowans has collected 69 instruments through his Band Together Westchase program. He wants to reach 100 donations at a drop-off event on March 28. The Farnell Middle School eighth grader launched this drive as his Eagle Scout project with Troop 46.<\/p>\n<p>The program gathers used instruments and delivers them to schools and youth music programs that serve low-income families. Cowans works with Recycled Tunes, which repairs the donations and matches them with students. Teachers can request particular instruments for their students through this group.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I have partnered with an organization called Recycled Tunes that will help me get the instruments repaired and connected to students at low-income schools and youth music programs,&#8221; Cowans told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabeacon.com\/news\/westchase-boy-scout-s-instrument-drive-hits-a-chord-across-tampa-bay\/article_ce7f2300-c2e8-442d-91da-a8e769c1a4ed.html\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tampa Beacon<\/a>. &#8220;Teachers also have the ability to request a specific instrument from Recycled Tunes for a student in need.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The saxophone player performs in two bands at his school. He came up with this idea after discovering old instruments at home.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I knew I could donate (them) and figured that others probably had instruments collecting dust that they could donate, too,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Donations have included pianos, guitars, ukuleles, flutes, clarinets, trumpets, saxophones, violins, drums, keyboards, a triangle, an oboe, a mandolin, xylophones, a recorder, and an accordion. People from across Tampa Bay have responded, including those from Pinellas and Pasco counties. Cowans is on track to earn his Eagle rank as a teenager \u2014 a milestone many don&#8217;t achieve until they&#8217;re older or almost done with high school.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wanted to do a music instrument drive so that people could drop off their instruments and see the impact that they are making on the community,&#8221; Cowans said.<\/p>\n<p>The project has grown past what he first imagined. &#8220;It just shows me that we are one big family and that so many people love music as much as I do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;My mission started out as &#8216;Band Together Westchase,&#8217; but has grown into something so much bigger that it should be called &#8216;Band Together Tampa Bay.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He will accept donations through the end of April. He hopes to make this an annual event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cameron Cowans has collected 69 instruments through his Band Together Westchase program. He wants to reach 100 donations&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[113,135,137,136,18072],"class_list":["post-205029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-education","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-westchase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}