For two months after Hurricane Maria devastated the island, 15-year-old Eduard Santiago Rosado put down his drumsticks and picked up a machete, helping family and neighbors in Puerto Rico clear out their streets of debris.
I woke up at 9 a.m., and at 11 a.m. I start with my machete and axe to cut the wood. That was every day, said Eduard, who is originally from Toa Alta, a town about 15 miles west of San Juan.
Before the storm hit, Eduard attended a specialized music school on the island, where he majored as a percussionist. After Maria, schools struggled to reopen and other hardships changed his familys circumstances on the island. They decided to flee.
As thousands of displaced Puerto Ricans from Eduards generation flood schools in Osceola County over 2,600 since the storm hit some are turning to the only familiar comfort they know: music.
Playing music for me is like leaving all behind I use all my feelings and leave all behind, said Eduard, who is now a ninth-grade percussionist major at the Osceola County School for the Arts. I leave all the disaster, all the Puerto Rico massacre, all behind. It clears my mind.
Debbie Fahmie, one of the directors in the Fine and Performing Arts department at Osceola County schools, said she knew many students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands would struggle to adjust.
Many of them are coming without their families; theyre now living with a distant family member who they barely know, and if you become part of the band or the orchestra, you become part of a family, Fahmie said.
But she said the countys band classes are already experiencing a shortage of instruments and instructors.
Three years ago, her department hoped to mitigate the problem by enlisting the help of Ted Gee, the president of Live Music Tutor. The program brings music instructors all over the country into local classrooms via video chat.
After the hurricane, Fahmie and Gee teamed up again to create Music Helps Heal a campaign to collect donated instruments and financial assistance for classes throughout Osceola County with large populations of displaced students.
When you think about a lot of kids, especially in underserved communities as a whole, music is another vehicle to allow us to get into [good] colleges. A lot of times in our communities, we cant afford it, Gee said.
Fahmie said the initiative has already yielded a $20,000 grant from Universal Studios, pianos from Walt Disney World, contributions from the Mr. Hollands Opus Foundation, and several instruments from Friends of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and its board of directors.
For Eduards classmate, 15-year-old Miliangelys Ortiz Torres, her familys move from Bayamn to Kissimmee was equally unexpected. Her older brother is a baseball player in his last year of high school. With most fields on the island destroyed, losing months of baseball practice could have hindered his chances to get a scholarship.
On Nov. 1, Miliangelys, her mom and her four siblings landed in Central Florida, where theyre currently living out of a hotel with FEMA vouchers, which she says will run out in a month.
Ive never been in a music school before, said Miliangelys, who is a vocals major. In fact, back on the island, she never had a singing lesson. She had an affinity for the piano and would occasionally sing in church.
For her audition to get into OCSA, she sang a song in Spanish, one of the few she could remember.
The woman conducting her audition, she recalled, asked, What does that song mean? And I explained and she said, you shared that feeling with me. She was accepted that same day.
My mom said I can be here half the semester because then shes planning to go back to Puerto Rico, so the excitement kind of went down a little, Miliangelys said. Of course I want to go back to Puerto Rico, its my home, but here I have lots of opportunities for a better future.
Eduard recently sat in the back of Edwin Imer Santiagos jazz class at OCSA, playing the cowbell as the class rehearsed Brooklyn en la Casa, a Latin Jazz song.
Santiago, who is of Puerto Rican descent, said its been moving for him to have new Boricuas Puerto Ricans in his classroom.
Months after the hurricane the work is not done, Santiago said. For many, its a process. Theyre going to be struggling for a while.
In his class, he said, they get a little bit more of a sense of home.
bpadro@orlandosentinel.com or 407-232-0202. Follow me on Twitter @BiancaJoanie
Go to www.musichelpsheal.org for more information on this amazing opportunity to help these students with used instruments or donations!
I woke up at 9 a.m., and at 11 a.m. I start with my machete and axe to cut the wood. That was every day, said Eduard, who is originally from Toa Alta, a town about 15 miles west of San Juan.
Before the storm hit, Eduard attended a specialized music school on the island, where he majored as a percussionist. After Maria, schools struggled to reopen and other hardships changed his familys circumstances on the island. They decided to flee.
As thousands of displaced Puerto Ricans from Eduards generation flood schools in Osceola County over 2,600 since the storm hit some are turning to the only familiar comfort they know: music.
Playing music for me is like leaving all behind I use all my feelings and leave all behind, said Eduard, who is now a ninth-grade percussionist major at the Osceola County School for the Arts. I leave all the disaster, all the Puerto Rico massacre, all behind. It clears my mind.
Debbie Fahmie, one of the directors in the Fine and Performing Arts department at Osceola County schools, said she knew many students from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands would struggle to adjust.
Many of them are coming without their families; theyre now living with a distant family member who they barely know, and if you become part of the band or the orchestra, you become part of a family, Fahmie said.
But she said the countys band classes are already experiencing a shortage of instruments and instructors.
Three years ago, her department hoped to mitigate the problem by enlisting the help of Ted Gee, the president of Live Music Tutor. The program brings music instructors all over the country into local classrooms via video chat.
After the hurricane, Fahmie and Gee teamed up again to create Music Helps Heal a campaign to collect donated instruments and financial assistance for classes throughout Osceola County with large populations of displaced students.
When you think about a lot of kids, especially in underserved communities as a whole, music is another vehicle to allow us to get into [good] colleges. A lot of times in our communities, we cant afford it, Gee said.
Fahmie said the initiative has already yielded a $20,000 grant from Universal Studios, pianos from Walt Disney World, contributions from the Mr. Hollands Opus Foundation, and several instruments from Friends of the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and its board of directors.
For Eduards classmate, 15-year-old Miliangelys Ortiz Torres, her familys move from Bayamn to Kissimmee was equally unexpected. Her older brother is a baseball player in his last year of high school. With most fields on the island destroyed, losing months of baseball practice could have hindered his chances to get a scholarship.
On Nov. 1, Miliangelys, her mom and her four siblings landed in Central Florida, where theyre currently living out of a hotel with FEMA vouchers, which she says will run out in a month.
Ive never been in a music school before, said Miliangelys, who is a vocals major. In fact, back on the island, she never had a singing lesson. She had an affinity for the piano and would occasionally sing in church.
For her audition to get into OCSA, she sang a song in Spanish, one of the few she could remember.
The woman conducting her audition, she recalled, asked, What does that song mean? And I explained and she said, you shared that feeling with me. She was accepted that same day.
My mom said I can be here half the semester because then shes planning to go back to Puerto Rico, so the excitement kind of went down a little, Miliangelys said. Of course I want to go back to Puerto Rico, its my home, but here I have lots of opportunities for a better future.
Eduard recently sat in the back of Edwin Imer Santiagos jazz class at OCSA, playing the cowbell as the class rehearsed Brooklyn en la Casa, a Latin Jazz song.
Santiago, who is of Puerto Rican descent, said its been moving for him to have new Boricuas Puerto Ricans in his classroom.
Months after the hurricane the work is not done, Santiago said. For many, its a process. Theyre going to be struggling for a while.
In his class, he said, they get a little bit more of a sense of home.
bpadro@orlandosentinel.com or 407-232-0202. Follow me on Twitter @BiancaJoanie
Go to www.musichelpsheal.org for more information on this amazing opportunity to help these students with used instruments or donations!