JAM nets trio of grants totaling about $16,600

Efforts to find funding to help familiarize Alleghany children with traditional mountain music have borne some fruit.

Within the last few months, JAM (Junior Appalachian Musicians), a program based at Sparta Elementary School, has been awarded grants totaling $16,600. Of that figure, $10,000 is from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), $6,000 from the N.C. Arts Council and $600 from the New Jersey-based Puffin Foundation.

"We are very dependent on private donations as well as grant money," said JAM Director Lujean Michael.

JAM has been a subsidiary of Mountaineer Millennium, an after-school program for grades five through eight. Mountaineer Millennium was established three years ago through a federal grant initiative. The federal funding ended in May, and that program has also been seeking to find other funding sources to allow it to continue.

Michael said that at this point, Mountaineer Millennium has enough money to carry on for about two more months. If it can continue, JAM will remain a part of it. However, if Mountaineer Millennium ends, JAM will continue to operate as a separate entity, she said.

About 50 pupils, from all three of the county's elementary schools, are in JAM now, said Michael. Last school year 60 to 80 pupils participated.

The pupils receive instruction in bass, guitar, fiddle, dulcimer, mandolin or banjo three days a week, with lessons and use of instruments provided free.

JAM has performed as a group at numerous events, including the Alleghany Fiddlers Convention, the Union Grove Fiddlers Convention, the "Blue Ridge Back Roads" live radio show on WBRF in Galax, Va., the Roanoke (Va.) Civic Center Banjo and Fiddle Club, at three local nursing homes and at last month's Alleghany County Fair.

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