A Russian immigrant, a hurricane, and the Kiwanis pledge to "serve the children of the world", have come together to provide a unique opportunity for Washington County area residents to reach out to a group still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina; young musicians.

Kiwanis Clubs from across the country, including the Carmichael Kiwanis Club, from Sacramento, Cal., have reached out to their communities to collect playable and/or repairable instruments for delivery to young people in the New Orleans area who have been deprived of the opportunity to learn to play due to the still devastating effects of the storm.

Sergeant Wright came from California this past June to give the children of New Orleans a gift. "I'm 86 and I've done a lot of things, but this is one of the highlights of my life," he said. Sarge was at the North Rampart Street Community Center on Thursday to present 100 musical instruments his group collected in the Sacramento area. "And we're not finished yet," he told the kids attending summer camp at the center formerly called St. Mark's. He showed them some instruments that have special meaning for him: the clarinet donated by the wife of a man who played with Miles Davis, the saxophone given by a dad in memory of his son -- a young sax player who died in a car accident. "All these instruments have a story," Sarge said.

The story of how the instruments ended up in New Orleans begins with Trent Strasburg, a retired postal inspector from Metairie. "After I retired, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up," he said. Trent plays trombone in the New Orleans Concert Band, and he thinks every child should have the opportunity to play an instrument like he did growing up in Wisconsin. "It just kind of came to me what I had to do," he said. He decided to learn how to repair musical instruments so he could fix used ones and put them in the hands of children. And in 2004, he talked his wife, Kim, into moving to Elkhorn, Wis., for a year so he could go to instrument-repair school.

After the hurricane, his dream of providing local children with instruments became even more important. So he enlisted the help of his Kiwanis Club, the Dawn Busters. "We decided to focus on kids who want to play music but won't have a chance without some help," he said. An earlier gift during the presentation, Trent told the campers why he called his dream the Karnofsky Project. It was named in honor of a Russian immigrant who came to New Orleans a long time ago and bought a used cornet for a young man who helped with his deliveries. "He gave it to Louis Armstrong, who turned out to be a pretty good cornet player," Trent said. He told how his club and Sarge's club became partners in the project and how the Dawn Busters plan to challenge other Kiwanis Clubs to raise even more used instruments.

"I want to get at least another thousand," Trent said, to loud cheers and whistles. The first 100 instruments will be used at the center's after-school program in the fall. Keith Hart, band director at the KIPP School, will be the music teacher. "And we're going to expand to other programs and other parishes, too," Trent said. They want to bring music and hope to lots of kids.

Julie Barr-Strasburg, Trent's sister-in-law, spoke to the Hagerstown Kiwanis Club on Thursday, November 29th, to secure the club's assistance in helping to meet the challenge of meeting this need in the New Orleans area. The Club decided to go public, with two articles in the Herald mail. This resulted in over 40 instruments, including saxophones, trumpets, trombones, drums, clarinets, and even an xylophone.