Student applies and receives grants for new percussion equipment at his high school

IDAHO FALLS — When a 15-year-old student saw that his high school band percussion equipment was deteriorating, he knew he had to do something about it.

Josue Perez, a sophomore at Idaho Falls High School, has been in the marching band for two years.

“Music is a huge part of my life. I’ve been obsessed with music,” Josue said. “I really like all the people that I get to hang out with and spend time with.”

However, the drums he has been using have been falling apart and have taken a toll on him.

“So I thought, what if we were able to get new drums?” Josue said.

He got talking with a friend who gave him the idea to apply for grants so he could get new drumline equipment. Josue approached Ron Henderson, his band director at Idaho Falls High School, two summers ago when he wasn’t quite a freshman to tell him about his idea.

“When he first told me he was doing this, I initially thought, ‘Oh that’s a great idea’ and I really thought it was going to stop there,” said Henderson. “All of a sudden, he comes to me a week or two later saying, ‘Okay everything is good to go. Let’s do this!’ I was completely blown away by the fact that he took off with this information and figured everything out seamlessly on his own.”

The average lifespan for drumline equipment is 10-15 years, according to Henderson. The Idaho Falls equipment is around 20 years old.

It has taken over a year but Josue put his mind to it when it came to the grants. The deadline for the process came up quickly. Josue didn’t get a grant the first time around so he applied again. He was able to receive money from the CHC Foundation and the Maeck Family Foundation.

“We ended up getting $28,700 just to put towards our drumline equipment, which is awesome,” said Josue.

Henderson says there will be about 50 to 70 pieces of equipment that will be replaced which includes not only drums but harnesses and covers.

“I honestly think it’s phenomenal. I am looking forward to seeing our percussionists having that equipment because what they are using is really beyond disrepair,” Henderson said. “We do get some funding from our district and school but the arts in general, especially music, is so expensive. I think it’s just important to know that while we do get support, that can only go so far and that’s why Josue sought other means to kind of help out with that.”

The process of applying for the grants wasn’t simple. There were essays, letters of recommendation and signatures involved.

“It took a lot of time and a lot of energy. He spent hours and hours researching different types of instruments and different places to buy them. He did price comparisons and all kinds of things to get quotes pulled together. He researched different topics and different foundations. Then he had to compile everything and contact the proper adults,” said Ashley Perez, Josue’s mother.

Ashley is very proud of her son and his accomplishments. He has always been a big thinker with grand ideas.

“This is just part of who he is. I think my husband and I have worked really hard to try not to limit him. If he has an idea, then I think it’s worth him exploring it and seeing what can happen. I think oftentimes, it’s easy for adults to kind of squash things like that in children and squash the wonder and tell them maybe it’s not possible and we just worked really hard not to do that,” Ashley said.

He’s done things that most kids his age wouldn’t necessarily think of doing. She said it started early when he was just five years old.

“He wanted to fly on Air Force One and so we told him to write a letter to the president and so he did. He wrote a letter and got a reply and it didn’t quite work out the way that he wanted it to but he was super excited about that and he’s just done other things like that,” she explained.

Josue says the marching band has not gotten the new percussion equipment quite yet because he and Henderson are still in the process of ordering it. He is estimating it will come sometime near Thanksgiving.

He is hoping it will help future band members too.

“I am happy that I was able to do this not only for myself and the band that I am in now but for future generations so that they have some nice equipment that they can show off to other bands in the area,” said Josue.