The percussive sounds of e-waste

The sound of computer monitors thumping into large cardboard bins was music to the ears of Hoover High School band members Saturday, as the school’s music program held its first e-waste recycling event.

Students, instructor Martin Rhees and booster Mike Risner greeted donors as they pulled into the parking lot on Glenwood Road, helping to haul monitors, old TVs, VCRs and the occasional leaf blower out of car trunks and into the bins.

“Business is steady,” Risner said, noting that the state pays a bounty on monitors and tube TVs. The band will get 60% of the proceeds of Saturday’s event, with the rest going to the school’s partner, ewastefundraising.org.

“It’s a good fundraiser,” trumpeter and senior Greg Kalfayan said. “Better than selling expensive candy nobody wants.”

Ruby Molina, freshman and alto saxophone player, said her family contributed three computer monitors and a scanner that are older than she is. “I’m for preserving things, because otherwise all this goes into a landfill,” Molina said.

Rhees, Hoover’s director of instrumental music, said he is looking to lead more than a group of capable musicians.

“I really want them to be good, productive citizens,” he said.

Risner said the funds would go to repairing broken instruments and buying new ones. But the program also needs a trailer or vehicle to carry the instruments, which travel to games and other events in the cargo hold of school buses.

“They are getting beat all to death,” Risner said. “We need cases and a vehicle to transport stuff in.”

Rhees said the Hoover concert band will play home basketball games through February, and both the concert band and orchestra will play the Glendale District Festival on March 5 and another concert March 28.