Caution: Start hearing banjos, mandolins, fiddles, and more. Indus School now has an after school bluegrass club. This club was started by Soren Olesen of Sloughgrass with the help of Indus administrative secretary Karen Anderson. They have already started practicing after school on Thursday nights and both students and adults are participating.
Starting in January, Olesen began inviting students and teachers to participate in the club. The piece of the puzzle that helped put everything together was a grant made available by the Bremer Foundation.
A request had to be sent in to receive the grant. Working together, Anderson and Olesen proposed to use the money to start a bluegrass club. The money is required to be used on after school activities that are not already paid for by the district. This grant is available to other area schools including Indus.
University of Minnesota Extension employee Jan Derdowski presented the club with a check for $1,945.81. The grant lasts for three years. The money received will be used to buy instruments for the kids to practice on. It may also be used to bring in different speakers to the school.
This is not the first time that Indus has used this grant. It was used a few years ago to bring a trailer of deer to the school as well as a “Climb Theater” production.
So far the bluegrass club has had a practice at least once every week since January. Practices are scheduled for March 29 at lunchtime and after school March 30, April 20, May 4 and 11. The club is also planning on playing for the talent show March 29. The community is welcome to join. Call 218-634-2425 if interested.
