Joe Keithley shows off a donated violin and guitar in Burnaby, B.C., on Dec. 16. The City of Burnaby is holding an instrument drive to collect donations on Sunday.Darryl Dyck/The Globe and Mail
Joe Keithley, a city councillor in Burnaby, B.C., and a member of the punk band D.O.A., recalls discovering in high school that learning a musical instrument can be a social catalyst.
It’s a belief that inspired him to launch Harmony for All, a program that provides musical instruction and instruments to low-income children. It launched in 2019, but this year has the official support of the City of Burnaby, which is holding an instrument drive to collect donations on Sunday.
“Music has this power that nothing else does,” Mr. Keithley said in an interview. “We’re in a time of chaos and the world is not in a great state right now. But the one thing that everybody in the world can relate to is music. And this is like the universal language of love.”
The instruments collected this weekend will be distributed next spring.
The city agreed in November to contribute $72,000 to Harmony for All, as well as to develop grants to help Burnaby residents pay for music programs.
The Burnaby Fire Department’s charitable organization has also been a supporter of the program since the beginning. In the first year, the organization donated $10,000 and has pledged to contribute this amount annually for the next 10 years.
“It’s about helping people in our community every day,” said Jeff Clark, president of the Burnaby Firefighters Association. “And when we looked at Harmony for All, it gives children in Burnaby a chance to own and play a musical instrument that their family may not have been able to afford. And we look at that as being life-changing.”
Once the instruments have been collected, the program will examine how to get them to the families. Phase two aims to provide music lessons at low or no cost to Burnaby residents.
Mr. Keithley said he hopes the program will bring together diverse groups within the city.
“Burnaby is a town that has over 100 different languages spoken here, you know, we are one of the most diverse towns in all of Canada. And I think what music can do is jump cultural barriers and really help new Canadians integrate with their friends and have fun with them,” he said.
The program has also brought together communities in the Lower Mainland. Mr. Keithley described how, in 2019, Vancouver Island residents travelled all the way to Burnaby to contribute to the effort.
The donation drive will take place in the main parking lot at city hall on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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