Jami, Jack, Red, Fern, Larry, Gay-
This is from a new bluegrass friend, a big time instrument maker and writer in the bluegrass world. I thought you might enjoy this take on bringing bluegrass to youth.He sent it to each of us in the class.
i wish each of you could  experience the Leadership Bluegrass- It was fantastic- 
Lucy


"New friends and Leadership partners....

It was great to spend the week with you and get to know each of you better. It was a super week filled with tons of information, thoughts, ideas, chuckles, and problems to solve. 

During the discussions about getting to young folks, I wanted to share a story, but aside from not having the time, a tear comes to my eye every time I tell it. So, I thought I'd wait for an email where I can tell you about the tear but not let you see it:

Last summer, I was invited to do a music-related program for a chidren's arts summer day camp that was run by one of my daughter's friends. It was a one-week program and busy as I was, I said "okay" and decided to have them all make a mandolin in five days, learn to play it, and do a recital on the last day (not TOO much to ask!!). I had 14 beautiful young folks ages 12-14, split pretty much boys and girls. So, I designed and roughed out 14 three-string mandolins out of pine, did a lot of prep work, and all they had to do was screw in the tuners, decorate the instrument with markers, and string them up. (I made a 3-string mandolin so I could use one guitar machine set per mandolin, single string per note, but it was still tuned in fifths). And by Wednesday, I taught them Happy Birthday and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (okay, not BLUEGRASS, but...). On Thursday morning, one of the young ladies came to me - holding her mandolin in her two hands - and said, "yesterday was my grandfather's birthday and I played Happy Birthday for him, and he was SO happy." And as she turned up to look at me, I had a couple (more than a couple) tears of joy rolling down my cheeks. She looked at me and paused for a moment, and then said "...did I do something wrong?"

Let's each of us continue to keep the flame alive.

Very best to you all..."

Roger