The Joy of Music School provides free lessons, instruments, music and materials to hundreds of Knoxville-area children who otherwise would do without. For more on the Joy of Music School, including how to volunteer, please visit www.joyofmusicschool.org
The United Way of Greater Knoxville last year awarded funding to our School through a grant program designed to support outcome-based initiatives such as our music-based mentoring program. Along with the award, the Joy of Music School became an official partner agency of the United Way! We are excited and grateful to announce that this funding has been extended to continue into the new fiscal year.
Thanks to the East Tennessee Foundation for supporting our summer programming and to the City of Knoxville for supporting us through its Community Agency Grant program, which aims to maximize community resources. This partnership has been crucial over the years and continues to help us serve our community. We appreciate the City’s focus on arts and culture in their support of community resources!
We are ever grateful to our stalwart foundation supporters, including the Tennessee Arts Commission (which is giving us substantially more this year than ever before), Knoxville Leadership Foundation (championing our mentorship program), and the Arts and Cultural Alliance (supporting capacity-building). We could not do our work without the generosity of these incredible organizations.
Fundraising is a unique challenge these days. Live, indoor charity events are not possible. Taking a donor to lunch and asking for a donation? Not so much. But, asking for supporters to donate via their phone, device or computer? That is a thing. A new, big, thing that Executive Director Frank Graffeo knew we needed to do more of. With the expert guidance of Advancement and Finance Manager Therese Bradbury, the School recently took part in “A Community Thrives” (ACT), a challenge grant for online and mobile fundraising. More than 900 organizations participated in this year’s challenge to become eligible for more than $2 million in grants from USA Today Network and the Gannett Foundation. The challenge was to raise funds online in friendly competition with other nonprofits. Early on, we dived in and met minimum challenge threshold of $3,000, which put us in the running for large grants of up to $100,000. Nonprofits beating that threshold also competed in categories for the most funds raised. We put the challenge out to our supporters to donate online via a web portal accessible on their phones and devices. ACT collected the funds and kept score. We did very well thanks to many of you reading this! You brought us in at No. 10 out of 570 charities nationwide in our category! On our first time out! What now? We wait on word about the large grant funding, which will be announced in December. Fingers crossed. We would say “wish us luck,” but we’re already feeling lucky thanks to donors like you!
Our third annual Swing for Joy golf tournament on October 14 is so close it’s practically a gimme.
The Joy of Music School provides free lessons, instruments, music and materials to hundreds of Knoxville-area children who otherwise would do without. For more on the Joy of Music School, including how to volunteer, please visit www.joyofmusicschool.org
The Joy of Music School provides free lessons, instruments, music and materials to hundreds of Knoxville-area children who otherwise would do without. For more on the Joy of Music School, including how to volunteer, please visit www.joyofmusicschool.org
The Joy of Music School provides free lessons, instruments, music and materials to hundreds of Knoxville-area children who otherwise would do without. For more on the Joy of Music School, including how to volunteer, please visit www.joyofmusicschool.org
The Joy of Music School provides free lessons, instruments, music and materials to hundreds of Knoxville-area children who otherwise would do without. For more on the Joy of Music School, including how to volunteer, please visit www.joyofmusicschool.org
Tony Evans was at the School waiting for one of his daughters to finish her violin lesson when he heard a young boy playing a hymn on our lobby piano. Tony knew the hymn so he went over and sat down beside the boy, adding some chords on the lower end. They sounded good together! Turns out the boy, Josue, had been taking piano lessons at JoMS, but his teacher had recently quit. He was deeply upset about this.
Someone told Tony that Josue stood in our hallway and cried when he heard the news. “I just thought, ‘This is wrong for me not to teach him,’ Tony recalls. “He’s very good.” That was three years ago, and ever since, Josue and Tony have met Tuesday evenings for piano lessons. Tony describes their sessions as the highlight of his week. “I think I was directed to be there in the School that day,” he says. “I don’t think anything happens by accident.” He adds: “Josue has such a good attitude. And he’s got perfect pitch.”
Tony’s a Knoxville native and a longtime local musician. He played in a handful of garage bands in the 1970s and ‘80s, bashing away at the guitar with his long hair flowing behind him. These days Tony is a doctor of audiology and runs the AudioLife Hearing Center in Knoxville. His firm donated a set of high-end Unitron hearing aids to the silent auction at our Holiday Sparkles & Spirits fundraiser event (see page 1). What a great way to share the joy of music: helping someone hear it better.
Thanks Tony, for your generous donation and for your time with Josue!
Our second annual Swing for Joy fundraiser golf tournament was a smashing success. Held on a smoldering summer morning —Aug. 27, which happens to be the birthday of our founder, James A. Dick—it featured 61 participants and raised almost $5,000 for the School. “One of the real highlights was the turnout,” says Cindi Alpert, our board president and the organizer of Swing for Joy. “There were so many new faces this year. It was wonderful.” For that we can thank a solid marketing effort that included multiple advertising spots on Cindi’s radio stations, 106.1 the River and 104.9 Good Time Oldies.
One of the participants was Arthur Dick, son of James, who came all the way from North Carolina and played in the tournament. We were thrilled to welcome him. The winning team was Brad Hall, Jerry Glenn, Darryl Whitehead, and Chase Wilhite. Special shoutout to JoMS board member Damon Falconnier, who played golf for the first time that day and whose team was able to use some of his very good shots! Afterward we enjoyed a fun awards luncheon, with raffles and prizes and delicious food from Archer’s BBQ. We are most grateful to everyone involved and we look forward to seeing you next year at Swing for Joy III!
What does the Caribbean sound like? Imagine an island beach and then listen for music. Hear that? Yes, your brain just played the steel drum, or steel pan. That magical pinging, singing tone has arrived at the Joy of Music School, thanks to Randy Kerns, co-owner of Panyard, Inc., makers of musical steel pans and accessories. Randy, who serves on the UT School of Music Advisory Board, recently toured JoMS with Executive Director Frank Graffeo.
Randy brought a donation—a charming pink steel pan with a stand whose base is a pair of plastic “bare feet.” (They almost make you feel the sand between your toes.) Randy is a musician himself and hopes “to encourage the School to start a steel pan class.” He included a stack of brand new teaching and learning books, and CDs as well.
During the tour Randy mentioned he plays accordion with his family, usually around the holidays. “Maybe we could form the world’s first steel pan/accordion band,” Frank suggested. “We might have a recruiting challenge,” Randy answered, “but it’s worth a try!”
“On the road again,” sings Willie Nelson, “I just can’t wait to get on the road again!” No matter how captivating the traveling life may be, every road warrior eventually needs fuel, sustenance, and rest. Nobody meets those needs better than one of the Joy of Music School’s most faithful sustainers, Pilot Flying J. Pilot Flying J is partnering with the Haslam Family Foundation as Presenting Sponsors of our Holiday Sparkles & Spirits fundraiser again this year (see page 1).
Founder Jim Haslam’s company and his family’s foundation annually pair up to make sure our event is a success, but more important, they help assure our volunteers can solidly carry out our mission. The Foundation and corporate support are proof to us that Mr. Haslam’s vision is matched only by his generosity. Pilot Flying J stores (more than 750, serving 1.6 million daily guests) line the highways of the continent. So, next time you’re on the road again and you spot a Pilot Flying J, pump the brakes. Stop in for fuel, rest, and goodness. Reflect on how those good folks support the art and discipline of music for deserving kids here in East Tennessee. Then, hop back in your car, turn up the music, and ease on down the road.
The Joy of Music School provides free lessons, instruments, music and materials to hundreds of Knoxville-area children who otherwise would do without. For more on the Joy of Music School, including how to volunteer, please visit www.joyofmusicschool.org
When you do a Google search and see those ads off to the side of your results page, there’s something more than meets the eye going on, and believe it or not, the Joy of Music School is in that realm. We have had a years-long relationship with a UT Business Analytics Prof. Julie Ferrara, who assigns her students to create and manage Google search-based ads for JoMS. This online visibility is made possible through an in-kind grant we get from Google for up to $10,000 value per month in Google Ads.
The result is, we get visibility when people type in terms that indicate they might be volunteer teacher material or might want to attend Holiday Sparkles & Spirits. This goes beyond the obvious person searching for volunteer opportunities or someone who types in “holiday charity benefi t parties in Knoxville.” The ads are based on words used in people’s searches. If someone local searches Google to buy or sell a guitar, for example, their search result might also get our ad on the side that says, “Teach Guitar to Disadvantaged Kids in Knoxville,” which clicks through to our site. Subtle, no?
The likelihood that our ad is at or near the top of the page depends on the amount we “bid” for those search terms. Fortunately, we don’t have to pay for the bid when our term is used to display an ad, because Google gives us an allowance to cover that expense. For-profi t companies pay lots of money for this kind of thing. But we get it for free thanks to Google, Julie Ferrara and her class, year after year.
Joy of Music School 