North Platte High School sends off grand piano to be refurbished before next school year

NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (KNOP) - North Platte High School is using the North Platte Concert Association’s grand piano while their current one is sent off to Kearney to be refurbished.

Music teacher at NPHS, Leah Purdy, said that the piano was bought new in 1968, and has been a pillar of the arts program at North Platte High School since.

“To our knowledge, it has always been at the high school, so it was in the old school and moved over to this school. It has been used for hundreds and hundreds of concerts and events. It’s still structurally really good, but the insides need some TLC,” Purdy said.

The fundraising journey to refurbish the high school’s piano was a long one, but it would’ve been much longer, had a very generous donor not contributed to the project.

“We got all of that money through Dancing with the Stars with a lot of smaller donations but then one huge extremely generous donor who really saw that need and wanted to help. We are so thankful for that,” Purdy said.

For those wondering about any leftover funds, the North Platte Public Schools Foundation wants to assure the community that all leftover proceeds will go to the high school’s arts program alone.

“We host events here all the time with outside groups and concert association-type things. Aside from our students, the piano that lives on this stage gets a lot of use. This is definitely worth the time and effort,” Purdy said.

The high school plans on having the piano back before the next school year begins.

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