All the Towns a Stage artwork by Dennis McGregor, SFF 2014

A Creative Future by Zack Hall, for The Bulletin Special Projects

Sisters Folk Festival and Family Access Network have made wonderful partners since 2011 when the organizations launched the Americana Project Arts Outreach Scholarship (APAOS).

Since its inception the scholarship has provided access to Sisters Country arts programs for hundreds of Sisters Country children who are either at-risk or living at or below the poverty line.

The scholarship helps children learn anything creative from playing the piano or the guitar or the finer points of dance in programs held by outlets such as Bald Eagle Music, Sisters Dance Academy and Sisters Park & Recreation District. And the growth has been steady.

And before 2011, there was little else like it.

“There were members of the community who could not access arts education because they couldn’t afford it,” said Katy Yoder, development director for Sisters Folk Festival. “If Sisters is a community that supports the arts, it didn’t make sense that a whole group was left out.”

The partnership first formed as a result of a donation from Bank of the Cascades. That seed money helped SFF raise about $8,000 for scholarships. Since then the size of the program has more than doubled.

Funded mainly through grants, including a $5,000 bi-annual grant from the PGE Foundation and the Tykeson Family Charitable fund which pledged $5,000 a year for the next three years, SFF staff projects APAOS will provide nearly $20,000 in scholarship money to nearly 100 children during the 2015-16 academic year.

The most important thing, though, is the difference APAOS is making in children’s lives.

“Their concentration is up, their self-worth and what they are feeling about themselves (is up),” said FAN advocate Dawn Cooper. “It’s just a huge positive connection that we are finding with the kids in these programs. It encourages the kids to contribute to their community and it engages them in learning new skills and personal talents. It’s just a beautiful connection.”

For SFF, the APAOS program has highlighted how donors who support the arts have helped the children who need it the most.

“It’s just been so cool,” Yoder said. “The teachers, the parents, everyone is seeing these incredible benefits to these kids as far as how they are doing in school … it’s really impacting their whole life.”

SFF welcomes individual donations. For more information on the Americana Project Arts Outreach Scholarship fund, visit www.sistersfolk.org/apaos/ or call Katy Yoder at 541-549-4979.