Newly Renamed Jim Hainlen Stillwater Orchestra Legacy Fund Honors Longtime Music Educator

Newly Renamed Jim Hainlen Stillwater Orchestra Legacy Fund Honors Longtime Music Educator, Launches New Campaign to Double Impact

Name, Fundraising Campaign Announced at Event Celebrating Stillwater Schools’ Orchestra Educators for 50+ Years of Esteemed Program
 
STILLWATER, Minn. (Oct. 24, 2025) — The Partnership Plan and Stillwater Orchestra Alumni Committee recently announced the newly renamed Jim Hainlen Stillwater Orchestra Legacy Fund. The fund, established in 2004 under the name Stillwater Orchestra Legacy Fund, now honors longtime music educator Jim Hainlen who taught in the Stillwater school district from 1973 to 2004. Hainlen’s tenure, influence, and mentorship of other orchestra educators in the district helped establish the Stillwater orchestra program as one of the most highly regarded public school orchestra programs in the nation. The group also announced a new endowment fund campaign with a goal of doubling the orchestra legacy fund to secure its impact to benefit Stillwater orchestra students for years to come.

“I always tried to teach beyond the musical notes, making connections to the other arts and life beyond school. The music mattered, but what mattered more was our relationships with one another and our sense of humanity,” says Jim Hainlen. “This honor affirms that approach, and the new effort to grow the fund will offer current and future students wonderful, exciting opportunities on their way to adulthood.”

The fund’s new name and endowment campaign were launched at an Oct. 9, 2025, event at the Historic Courthouse in Stillwater. “An Evening with the Hainlens” gathered orchestra alumni and supporters to celebrate Hainlen and his wife, Linda, as well as acknowledge current and past orchestra educators in the program’s more than 50 years of history. The event featured remarks by Hainlen, alumni and supporters, as well as performances by current and former Stillwater string players. A committee of orchestra alumni spanning Hainlen’s four decades of teaching hosted the event and is leading the drive to double the legacy fund’s impact, an effort inspired by Hainlen’s successful battle against Stage IV prostate cancer.

“What we have here in the Stillwater orchestra program is a profound experience and unique nationally,” says Dale Johnson, a 1986 graduate and lead of the alumni committee. “To be able to contribute to that and help strengthen and sustain it for future generations of students to benefit from is really special.”

The legacy fund was established in 2004 following Hainlen’s retirement from the Stillwater school district and is one of the funds within The Partnership Plan for Stillwater Area Schools, managed by the St. Croix Valley Foundation. The fund’s endowment enriches the experiences of Stillwater Area Public Schools orchestra students beyond what is possible in the regular school budget. The new fundraising campaign was launched to double the fund from $100,000 to $200,000, thus doubling its endowment impact every year for orchestra students from the elementary school level through high school.

“The purpose of the fund is simple: to forever support and enhance the exceptional orchestra music education programs in Stillwater Area Public Schools and the students who participate in those programs,” says Rick Robbins, executive director of The Partnership Plan. “Growing the Jim Hainlen Stillwater Orchestra Legacy Fund will allow us to have a greater impact each and every year.”

Donations of all sizes are welcome; to make a tax-deductible donation, visit The Partnership Plan’s donation page and select “Orchestra Legacy Fund.”

Photo caption: Jim and Linda Hainlen listen to remarks at “An Evening with the Hainlens” at the Historic Courthouse in Stillwater, an event to announce the newly renamed Jim Hainlen Stillwater Orchestra Legacy Fund to honor the longtime music educator and announce a new campaign to double the fund’s impact.
 

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The Partnership Plan is an independent non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization, started in 1989, dedicated to the continued academic excellence of the Stillwater Area Public Schools. The Partnership Plan secures private, supplemental funding to support valuable education experiences and innovative projects throughout Independent School District 834. Funds raised augment school system revenues that are provided by taxes, state aid, and other parent and student-led fundraising efforts.
 
The newly renamed Jim Hainlen Stillwater Orchestra Legacy Fund was established within The Partnership Plan in 2004 to support the exceptional orchestral music education programs in the Stillwater Area Public Schools that are over and above the district budget.