National Pawn donates more than 100 instruments to New Hanover schools

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — It is the season of giving, and on Wednesday more than 100 musical instruments were donated to New Hanover County Schools.

National Pawn, a North Carolina-based pawn retailer, donated the instruments and gave $2,000 to bolster the county’s public school music programs.

National Pawn Founder Bob Moulton wanted to participate in his school’s band as a kid, but found it challenging to do so because it would difficult for his parents to purchase a new instrument. Moulton wanted to play the trumpet.

“My mother’s a great bargain shopper, and she found me one for $15 at a yard sale,” Moulton said.

Moulton said his favorite memories of being in band were having fun and now he wants other kids to have the opportunity to have fun and learn.

The donated instruments were delivered to Roland-Grise Middle School on Wednesday.

“We’ve got some guitars,” Moulton said. “Band instruments, trumpets, trombones, flutes, clarinets, saxophones, snare drums. And then we also have some acoustic guitars. That is going to the county to see, to disperse as they see fit.”

In total, National Pawn has donated more than 3,000 instruments and $48,000 to more than 20 schools in the past several years.

Moulton hopes this program will inspire others to also donated their gently used instruments to a local public school system so as many students as possible can benefit from band programs.

“If you have a trumpet, trombone, clarinet, flute, or something at home in your garage, basement, please donate it because we are barely touching the surface here with our donation,” Moulton said. “There’s so many kids who’d love to play in the band, and they just simply cannot afford an instrument.”