Steve Nowels, owner of Top Notch Violins, 3109 Sutton Boulevard, fell quite short of his Indiegogo campaign goal to raise $35,000 to repair instruments for a St. Louis school, but he’s not too down about it.
Nowels had a bass from the school, once in three pieces, which is now ready for strings; and a violin, also once in pieces, is fully repaired.
He lives near the Shaw Visual and Performing Arts School. When he found out the music teacher was turning away students because of broken instruments he wanted to help.
“At least we raised enough—ended up with about $2,100 after all the fees—we’ll put that to good use,” he said. “Get her a couple of instruments back in service. I think it’s a win in that sense. I wish we could have done more. Nature of fundraising. You learn from what you did.”
He said the music teacher hasn’t had a budget at the school since she’s been there. “Nobody told her how much money she could spend so she could allocate her expenses and figure how to best use the resource,” Nowels said.
He suspected that the the video for the campaign didn’t emotionally reach people. “Or didn’t reach them in a way that would open up the wallet,” he said.
He said if he does it again for a school district he’ll have a better game plan in place.
Nowels said his largest contributor came from someone who read about it on 40 South News.
See also: Violin shop opens in Maplewood, Welcome To Maplewood-Top Notch Violins
Is there a way to still donate? I’m sorry we didn’t hear about it! It’s such a great cause. Don’t give up. We can help you next time with some marketing strategy to get the word out !
Michelle Barron 314-968-4491
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