Lunenburg students putting on bluegrass concert

Edwin Hayes was thrilled when he learned that he and other Lunenburg County students would be able to put on a show.

"As soon as they told us about it, I said, 'Let me get the permission slip to my mom and get it signed as quick as I can,'" said the 14-year-old Lunenburg Middle School student.

It doesn't hurt his enthusiasm that his voice will be heard in a radio commercial promoting Thursday's performance of teenage bluegrass singer and mandolin player Sierra Hull.

The concert at Kenbridge Community Center is being put on by the students, thanks to a federal 21st Century Community Learning Center grant. The grant aims to create learning centers that provide enrichment opportunities during non-school hours for children in rural and inner-city schools and help them meet state standards in core academic subjects.

In Lunenburg, the grant has

meant after-school cooking programs, French and karate classes for the students, and technology classes for the community, said Meri Page Spencer, the grant coordinator for the school system.

School officials were looking for advice about projects and programs when they approached Christopher Gowin, general manager of WSVS (800 AM) in Crewe. The WSVS signal reaches the Richmond area, Emporia, South Hill and Farmville.

Gowin suggested a concert as a long-term fundraiser for the system. "They can put on concerts for the next 30 years that will support their school system," he said.

With Gowin's guidance, about 40 Lunenburg students were split into two groups: marketing and promotion, and sound and production. They have done everything from designing the tickets and fliers and distributing them, to cutting commercials and preparing to handle the sound and the show's production.

"They have been involved from the ground up," Spencer said.

Students solicited support by going door to door to Kenbridge businesses and were able to raise more than $3,000 from sponsors.

High school senior Rowland Seals joined the sound and production team, and his fondness for music is part of the reason he is enjoying the program. "It has been right up my alley," he said.

The experience has been fun, Seals said, but not enough to make him reconsider his plans to become a history teacher.

And Rac Hazelwood, an eighth-grader, may still want to be a crime-scene investigator, but this exposure has him considering sound and production as a career.

Same for Derrick Moore, an eighth-grader whose voice also will be heard on the commercial for the concert.

He wants to be a football or basketball player, "but this would be a third option," he said. "It's fun."

Just in case he does find himself in radio, Moore is going to come up with a catchphrase. He doesn't have one right now, but "I've got many years to think of that one."

Contact Jamie C. Ruff at (434) 223-3678 or .