jazz and blues instrument and education drive set to depart Feb. 12

Seacoast musician TJ Wheeler is among those keeping faith with the people of New Orleans. The founder of the Blues Bank Collective, a 501(C)(3) nonprofit blues education organization, is making his second trip in nine months to help schools that were hard hit by Hurricane Katrina.

“(When we went to six schools last May), we thought that the van full of instruments that we brought, though a small contribution, comprised with all the other contributions we assumed the schools were receiving, would make a difference,” Wheeler says. “When we got there, outside of a couple of the schools receiving some guitars from the House of Blues Foundation, none of the schools had received anything else and two of the schools never had any instruments to begin with. That’s what we found.”

The schools need more than instruments. The BBC is expanding its mission to include the donations of quality books, CDs and DVDs on music (especially pertaining to jazz, blues and American roots music) as well as on topics of black history, the arts and southern culture.

Wheeler’s southern contact is Becky Bidwell-Hanson, acting executive director of Communities in Schools of New Orleans, Inc. who says in a recent letter to Wheeler that, while there have been some successes, public school children are still facing difficult circumstances.

Lacking adequate food service facilities, she writes, children who should be receiving hot lunches are being served bologna sandwiches that are still frozen. “Other buildings lack library resources, technology equipment, physical education resources, and arts or cultural enrichment opportunities. ... At John McDonough Senior High School, students have been placed in classes with as many as 100 students per teacher. Bathrooms at the school lack stall doors, and toilet paper and hand soap are scarce. Students are expected to learn without textbooks and other educational supplies.”

All the instruments Wheeler is collecting have been donated, and he is donating his time to offer educational lectures that he also hopes will enrich the community.

Those interested in donating instruments can drop them off at the Press Room at any time, though Wheeler is holding a special benefit there on Saturday, Feb. 10, with a $7 admission being donated to the effort.

To help out, he is also donating 100 percent of proceeds from sales of the next 300 copies of  “Play It Forward” by TJ Wheeler and the Funky River Band. The CDs are available locally at Bull Moose Music and will be available by early to mid February through www.CDBaby.com.

The BBC is collecting tax-deductible donations to support the trip. Checks should be made out to the Blues Bank Collective, with “Katrina II” in the memo line, and mailed to the Blues Bank Collective, TJ Wheeler, 11 Brown Road, Hampton Falls, NH 03844. Wheeler can be reached for further information at 603-929-0654 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
USA Today reported on Jan. 15 that the coroner’s office in New Orleans found suicide rates in the first four months after Hurricane Katrina to be 300 percent higher than pre-hurricane levels.

The mental health care system has been ravaged, but “Depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety are rampant, they say. People with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other chronic mental illnesses are unraveling because they can’t get the treatment they need,” writes Peter Eisler of USA Today on Jan. 15.