AthFest Educates announced it will award a special $35,000 grant for a multi-year afterschool orchestra program at Howard B. Stroud Elementary that is a partnership with the University of Georgia’s Community Music School (UGA CMS). The funds will be used to purchase instruments for the orchestra and pay music instructors from CMS. It will also cover the cost of transportation to get students home from the program. The project is funded in part by a recent $6,700 gift from the 100 Women Who Care Athens chapter.
The project was born out of AthFest Educates’ desire to use some of its reserve funds for a larger project that would fall outside its annual grant-making initiative, which caps each individual grant award at $5,000. The organization sent out a survey asking local teachers and youth development specialists what types of music and arts-based projects and programs were needed in Athens and to determine who is able to launch or grow those programs. Access to individualized and small-group instrument-specific lessons rose to the top.
