Las Vegas natives Imagine Dragons joined Life Is Beautiful, VH1 Save The Music Foundation and Toyota to present three Clark County School District schools with music education grants in a special ceremony on Thursday.
Dell H. Robison Middle School, James Cashman Middle School and Ed W. Clark High School received Save The Music grants, which will provide musical instruments to each school.
"We believe that every kid in America has the right... to have music, and art, and beauty in their school, in their community," VH1 Save the Music Executive Director Henry Donahue said during the assembly.
Jeffrey Lacoff, the band teacher at Clark High School, says that music teaches students not to settle for anything less than perfection.
"It's not that the band kids and the orchestra kids are smarter, it's that we've trained them to not fail," he explained. "Which is what I really want when I go see a doctor - that he's studied... until he couldn't be wrong."
"A life with music education gives students the ability to express themselves, to be more creative," added Tyler McBride, the Engagement and Marketing Manager for Toyota. "Studies even show that those who are involved in a music education program are more likely to perform well academically."
The grant is part of Toyota and Save The Music's #ToyotaGiving partnership campaign and was achieved through an interactive activation featured at music festivals nationwide, including Stagecoach, Country 500, Firefly, Lollapallooza and the upcoming Life is Beautiful and Voodoo Music + Arts Experience.
In the past two years the #ToyotaGiving campaign has collectively donated $70,000 to VH1 Save The Music Foundation. The grants were awarded to four schools in the New Orleans and Chicago areas providing each school with musical instruments and increasing the number of music teachers on staff to support sustainable music education programs.
