Niagara police on the hunt for bagpipes to fuel piping revival effort
You've heard of a gun amnesty? Here, it's no questions asked if you bring in an old set of pipes
Niagara police are on the hunt for bagpipes.
They're even offering a bagpipe "amnesty" for people who bring in used and forgotten-about pipes from their basements, garages and attics.
It's like the gun amnesties that police sometimes offer: No questions asked, just bring them.
We're trying to resurrect bagpiping.- Pipe Major Peter MacKenzie
But they don't want to take the bagpipes off the streets, as they would with guns. They want to put them back out on the streets.
The service is in need of bagpipes for the growing youth program operated by its pipe band. It's part of a determined effort to bring a new generation to piping.
Pipes with history
"We want to resurrect some of the pipes from the community and put them into the band that they can play as a bit of history, opposed to buying a plastic set off the shelves, to have the youngster feel a little more part of the community and the band as a whole," said the band's Pipe Major Peter MacKenzie.
MacKenzie is optimistic that Niagara police's support of the "amnesty" will enable it to rescue old bagpipes "with some history behind them," and give young pipers who can't afford to purchase the instrument a chance to play.
Last fall, the band's introductory program for youth aged 9 and 10 known as the Big NOISE in Niagara Falls, Ont. filled up, according to MacKenzie, with several added to a waitlist.
High cost
With a good set of bagpipes going for over $1,000, the pipe band wasn't the only one limited by the instrument's cost.
A bagpipe band in northern Scotland founded a similar initiative, which is where MacKenzie says he got the idea for the Niagara police bagpipe amnesty.
"The cost of pipes were getting prohibitive and they knew there were a number of pipes out in the community that could benefit the band that were laying dormant," MacKenzie told CBC News.
"Either old uncles or fathers who had past, and they just sat in cupboards, attics and garages with nothing done to them. Rather than see them go to waste, and end up in the dump when people move or downsize, they decided to do an amnesty."
The band hopes to receive 12 sets of bagpipes before October "to show [these kids] what it means to play a good set of pipes" and instill a love for bagpiping.
'Whole generation that didn't teach'
According to Niagara Falls, Ont. resident, 65 per cent of the Pipe Band is under 22, followed by a 28 year age gap.
"There was a whole generation that didn't teach and because of that, there's kind of a hole in the middle," he said.
"When I was a young man playing in the Pipe Band in my 20s and 30s we didn't do any teaching from the band. It wasn't part of what we did and it really hit home over the last five years when the bands in the area collapsed with not enough players."
But the band, which started in 1977, is trying to correct this by encouraging youth to play the bagpipes.
"We're trying to resurrect bagpiping," he said.