Endicott music classroom to recieve free new drums

The music room at the Endicott/St. John Middle School will soon be filled with 30 new snare drums courtesy of the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.

Band Director Billy Ray received word Monday that the school had been awarded the drums through a grant process.

“It’s amazing. It’s gonna be like Christmas, but a lot louder,” Ray told the Gazette Tuesday.

The drums will be used for the school’s percussion ensemble. Ray said 22 students were in the ensemble this year, but the school had only 11 drums. And not many of those are snares.

“So you know how that goes,” he said. “We’ve had 11 kids playing t...