A grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation is like a gift of candy for Resa's Pieces Concert Band.
"We were ecstatic, ecstatic, ecstatic because now we're able to move forward and let the organization head in the direction it should head," said Resa Kochberg, founder of the North York band.
The band is receiving a $51,000 grant over three years, one of 51 not-for-profit and charitable groups across Toronto receiving almost $5.3 million from the foundation.
Another $5.5 million is being distributed to community organizations across Ontario.
An agency of the provincial government, the foundation gives grants to not-for-profit and charitable community organizations.
For Resa's Pieces, the funding will allow the band to bring its music closer to home.
The band has been performing at the Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts but has outgrown the venue.
In fact, the band has grown so popular, it has been forced to turn people away, Kochberg said.
Now, the band will be able to perform at the larger Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts on Yonge Street north of Sheppard Avenue.
The band will also be able to hire an executive director to manage its growing needs. Last year, a strings orchestra was added and now the band is looking to add a choir.
The band is a chance for latent musicians to reclaim their love of playing, according to the band's website.
"Resa's Pieces began in 2000 with Resa Kochberg's dream of forming a concert band so that like-minded adults within the community could have the opportunity to return, relearn, reawaken and rediscover playing wind instruments in an encouraging, supportive and fun-filled ensemble," it said.
"Resa's Pieces Concert Band began with 18 eager members and now has a membership of over 50 'pieces' who come from diverse backgrounds and all walks of life. Ages span from the 20s to 90 years young."
According to Kochberg, Resa's Pieces puts "smiles on (band members') faces and gets their minds off their everyday routines."
Audiences, including those at places such as Baycrest Geriatric Health Care System and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre's K Wing for veterans, are invited to throw themselves into the concerts.
"I try very hard to involve audiences in the music," kochberg said.
"Most of the music is recognizable. We get people clapping along, singing along. It is a lot of audience participation in the music."
The band's website is resaspieces.org