I am reaching out to friends, family, and appreciators of local musician, teacher, and instrument repair technician, John Thomas of Thomas Musical Instruments.

For decades John has worked to help keep music programs alive in our schools and community - from teaching, to conducting the Santa Cruz City band, to servicing local brass and woodwind instruments. If you or your kid played a woodwind or brass instrument in a local school program, band, or orchestra in Santa Cruz County in the last 3+ decades, chances are John Thomas once worked on that instrument or supplied the sheet music, reeds, or valve oil you needed to take care of it.

The Situation

When John was in his twenties, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He was fortunate enough to survive that ordeal, but at the time treatments were not as targeted as they are today, and due to the internal strains they caused, he now needs heart surgery. John is scheduled to get a triple bypass and valve replacement on November 7th.

While health insurance should cover the surgery, John will not be able to work while he recovers after the operation - which could potentially take six months. He will likely be in the hospital for several weeks, and is not expected to be able to drive for 6-8 weeks. This leaves him with no way to pay for the regular costs of living (like rent, shop rent, insurance, phone, utilities, and food). He has an expected monthly need of $3,700.*

*This estimate does not include unknown medical costs. We don't know how health insurance will change after the beginning of the year or what medications will amount to so this is a conservative estimate.

Over the years, John has bent over backwards time and time again to help others - giving a break to parents who are scraping by so their kids can play music, or working late into the night so someone who broke their instrument can play in a performance the next day. Even to his own detriment, John has always prioritized others over profit. To anyone who knows John, or even to those who just appreciate his contribution to keeping music education alive in Santa Cruz, I encourage you to give back what you can. Every little bit helps.

If you would like to make payment directly to John rather than through the GFM platform, please see the CaringBridge link below or contact me (Rae) directly and I will provide that information.

For those who would like to receive updates on how John is doing, please sign up for those at Caring Bridge. Thanks.