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Keara Wallenmeyer, a fifth-grader at Laytonsville Elementary School, joined a music class in September hoping to play the violin. Instead, the teacher handed her a cello because the school did not have a violin to offer her.

"So I'm faced with: Do I watch this child come home and be unhappy playing the cello? And how many other children have that same problem because their parents cannot afford to purchase them or rent them an instrument?" said her mother Catherine Wallenmeyer.

Keara played the cello for 2½ months until Wallenmeyer saved up some cash, found stores that offered discounts and free instrument repair, bought and donated a violin and bow and four other instruments to the school in November.

She launched an instrument drive at Laytonsville Elementary with the school's PTA and is calling on residents to clean out their attics and make donations. She hopes to expand the effort to other schools and start a nonprofit foundation.

A used violin can run $125, Wallenmeyer learned. A new one can cost $350 or more, she said. Lashof Violins of Gaithersburg rents violins for $15 to $22 per month, violas for $15 to $30 and a cello for $35 to $60 per month, according to the company's Web site.

She knew of other parents in her daughter's music class who had lost jobs and struggled to afford instruments, she said.

She reached out to the county school system only to find a shortage of instruments, especially smaller instruments, for student use.

"The demand for borrowed instruments far outweighs our supply," said Betsy Brown, curriculum director for Montgomery County Public Schools. "We are doing the best we can with the limited resources we have."

The school system does not have data on the number of students who have not received instruments, she said. Schools have developed processes for accepting donated instruments, she said, and instrumental music teachers at all levels have developed processes for loaning and trading instruments among schools.

Brown added that that the school system encourages any donations of extra instruments to local schools or the school system's central office.

Wallenmeyer reached out to conservatories, philanthropists and nonprofits. She bought four violins and bows, plus a slide trombone at Victor Litz Music Center of Gaithersburg, which offered her a discount on purchases and promised free tuning and repairs for donated instruments. Lashof donated a used violin.

Wallenmeyer wants to expand collection efforts to Gaithersburg Middle School, where her daughter, McKenna, attends, she said, but does not plan to stop there.

She wants to raise enough money to support instrumental needs throughout the county.

"We do not have firm numbers on the cost," of providing instruments to all fourth- and fifth-grade students, said Brown. "But [we] project it to be in the millions of dollars in the first year, with an annual cost of over a million dollars to replace, repair and supply parts for instruments."

Call Catherine Wallenmeyer at 240-793-1342 to donate used or new instruments or make a financial contribution.