LANCASTER, Pa. — If you're travelling around downtown Lancaster this summer, chances are, you could see a couple pianos.
Music For Everyone, a local nonprofit in Lancaster, placed 19 pianos across the city for their annual Keys For The City street piano program.
The pianos are placed throughout the city at various hot spots, sidewalk locations and neighborhood sites accessible to the public 24/7.
However, when they first launched the program, the city had doubts that it could ever work.
"The city thought we were crazy and the pianos would not last a week without getting vandalized," said John Gerdy, executive director of MFE. "But we had a different way of thinking, we believe the people's better angels."
That first summer, they only had one instance of a piano being vandalized.
Flash-forward 14 summers later, organizers say the whole community still shows their love and support.
"It offers a chance to build community through the power of music and further solidifying Lancaster’s status as 'The Street Piano Capital of the World,'" said Brendan Stengle, director of operations of MFE. “This project is a literal expression of what this organization is about – Access to and Music For Everyone.”
Three of the 19 instruments have a special message behind them.
The "Music For Everyone" piano will draw attention to the work that the organization is doing.
The “Songs For Justice" piano will be a further extension of the Songs for Justice initiative. The instrument, and the mission as whole, seeks to create change in communities by starting conversations about social inequities.