Lewis County Concerts donates xylophones for local parks

By Tyrus VanTuyl  / ty@chronline.com
Posted 1/20/25

Visitors to some Lewis County parks will notice a new piece of musical playground equipment.

However, the history of the xylophones — two of which were recently installed at West Side Park …

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Lewis County Concerts donates xylophones for local parks

Posted

Visitors to some Lewis County parks will notice a new piece of musical playground equipment.

However, the history of the xylophones — two of which were recently installed at West Side Park and Lintott-Alexander Park in Chehalis — is anything but new.

The donating group, Lewis County Concerts, was founded in 1938 to bring musical performers to the local area for public enjoyment and musical education. They booked concerts in high schools and any other suitable venue they could find.

The group almost folded about 20 years ago, as paying patrons numbered less than a hundred, organizers recently told The Chronicle.

Then, local real estate developer Virgil Fox stepped in and brought with him new volunteers who reenergized the group.

Soon, they were organizing world-class musicians to perform to over 600 patrons.

As part of the reorganization, Fox recruited local donors known as the Founders Circle. They each contributed $1,000 a year to build a nest egg to ensure the group's continued success.

Ticket prices to the group’s concerts were kept low thanks to the dedication of roughly 25 volunteers who handled all aspects of organization, including auditions, ticket sales, advertising, ushering, management of artists and special security.



Over the years, the audience slowly declined, and the number of volunteers dwindled. Around six years ago, the group reluctantly decided to stop presenting public concerts. Fox and the founders turned over the organization to the remaining volunteers: Mary Glenn, John Panesko, Phil Gilbert, Bill and June Cleaveland and Karen Soukkala, who have served to this day.

The mission of Lewis County Concerts remains to bring music to the community.

To carry the mission forward, the volunteers began providing musical concerts for local schools to stimulate an interest among the youth. When COVID-19 reduced the number of musical groups available, the group changed its plan. It decided to purchase playground xylophones as a contribution to the community, hoping that it will spur an interest in music for children playing at local parks.

A total of six playground xylophones will be installed in parks around Lewis County.

Two have already been installed: one at West Side Park, and one at Lintott-Alexander Park. The other four will be installed at Mossyrock’s Klickitat Park, Toledo’s City Park, the Onalaska Alliance's Carlisle Park and at the Discover! Children's Museum in Centralia.

The xylophones have been modified to add numbers to the keys and affixed with five play-by-number songs in the hope that a child will tap out their first recognizable tune.

The group chose this specific playground instrument after seeing the City of Tacoma install one at Lake Mayfield Park about six years ago. It has been popular with children and adults and has withstood the abuse that  playground equipment receives.

Believing that life is better with music, and building on the work of hundreds of volunteers before them, Lewis County Concerts is still promoting an interest in music all across Lewis County.