Sending lots of love to Watermelon Music

Like many Davisites, I received on April 11 in my email inbox a message with the subject, “Upcoming events and a plea for help.”

It came from Watermelon Music owner, Jeff Simons, and it was a heartfelt note about the financial devastation that has hit the store since a pandemic closed the world for a while. Wendy Weitzel wrote about it in last week’s column (https://www. davisenterprise.com/news/community-has-a-heart-for-watermelon-music/), and I’ve been following the GoFundMe page obsessively. It’s a very uplifting story unfolding.

At the time of this writing, the fundraiser is $795 short of its $104,000 goal. Let me repeat ... 871 donations have been made to Watermelon Music, totaling $103,205 over the past couple of weeks. Because this town is awesome.

And because Watermelon Music has been an awesome asset in Davis for more than 20 years. Personally, I remember going to the downtown location in 2006 to rent a violin for our older son and being enchanted by the store. Obviously, we’d also gone in a handful of times prior to that so our kids could shake the little noisemaker egg thingies or strum some strings on a guitar. But this was the first time we felt like real musicians.

And this feeling continued when our younger son rented his first violin at Watermelon, then years’ worth of instruments for both kids’ school bands and orchestras. Our devotion to the store grew as both sons took lessons there, and we bought a variety of horns, guitars, basses, amps and other accoutrements for their garage bands.

The point of all this reminiscing is that I had a great impression of Watermelon Music and have been a devoted customer for the past 17 years. But the outpouring from others has been a joy to see, along with Simons’ response to that outpouring.

Here’s a sampling of messages from donors on the GoFundMe page:

“Watermelon Music makes such a contribution to Davis and the surrounding community.

Our two girls participated in music throughout their time in the Davis schools. If not for Jeff Simons and Watermelon Music, where would they have gotten their first trumpet and violin?

The joy of music may be one of the only things we can all agree on right now. And boy do we need some common ground!”

“Watermelon Music has been so generous with me over the past 22 years of making music in Davis. Thank you for all the teacher discounts — I am paying some of them back now. Thanks also for the special orders, free advice, instrument consignment, free string replacement, and the cool events at the Melon Ball.

Watermelon Music has tremendous value in my life and in this town!

“Music education depends on the strength of a town’s local music store. What Watermelon provides cannot be replicated on a website. They are as vital to this community as the post office or the local library.”

Simons is mentioned directly by many of the commenters as being incredibly helpful and supportive of the community, and in his reply to all this generosity he said, “My optimism and love for what I do have been fully restored thanks to this outpouring of kindness and love.”

We love you, too. And as I finish this column, another $50 donation has come in — only $745 to go.

— Tanya Perez lives in Davis with her family. Her column is published every other Sunday. Reach her at pereztanyah@ gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter at @californiatanya.