The
Louise P. Zanar
Fund
at The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
at The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region
The Louise Zanar Guitar Classes at the Levine School of Music
The Levine School of Music: This school is one of the nation’s largest and most prestigious community music schools. It offers music education for students of every age, ability and background. To maintain the school’s accessibility, it offers an extensive scholarship program that is both needs and merits based. In 2005, the school opened up a branch school in Anacostia at a new facility, the Arts & Recreational Center (the ARC).
Since its inception, the Fund has underwritten the Louise Zanar Guitar Class which is offered at the Levine School's Anacostia campus in the ARC. This year, instructor Matthew Dievendorf has had his students focus primarily on Blues and R&B, teaching the students how to listen to music and improvise. The class has been extremely successful and has sparked a growing interest in guitar at the ARC.
Beginning in 2008, the Fund will underwrite two guitar classes at the Levine School. It will continue to underwrite the current intermediate Louise Zanar Guitar Class and add a new class for beginners.
Louise P Zanar Fund Scholarships for the Theatre Lab
The Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts is the Washington area's most comprehensive theatre training center, providing theatre education to more than 1,000 adults, teens and children in the DC area each year. It is a non-profit organization committed to broadening participation in theatre arts and providing theatre education opportunities for traditionally underserved populations and is currently featured in the 2006/2007 Catalogue for Philanthropy as one of the best small charities in Washington.
Since 2005, the Louise P Zanar Fund has provided more than a dozen scholarships for underserved children in the Washington area to attend the Theatre Lab's highly regarded summer programs of acting camps and theatre institutes. These program not only improve the participants' theatric skills, but increase self-esteem, strengthen communication and teamwork and stimulate creative thought. The Louise P Zanar Fund continues to underwrite scholarships so that each summer, children who would otherwise not have access to such programs can attend.
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW)
CHAW is a community-based, not-for-profit organization founded in 1972 by community members who were interested in sharing their artistic expertise with children and adults. The Workshop facility is located in a racially and economically diverse neighborhood. Participants--students, artists, faculty, audiences and staff--come from diverse communities throughout the Capital Region, especially from Capitol Hill. Working with leadership at CHAW the executive committee has designed a grant to support CHAW’s expansion into creative writing instruction for area Washington D.C. youth. You can learn more about CHAW at www.chaw.org.
The Louise P Zanar Fund's Scholarship for Brainfood
The Louise P Zanar Fund has funded a full-year scholarship for a local high school student to attend Brainfood's after-school culinary program.
Brainfood is a non-profit youth development organization in Washington, DC. Using food as a tool, Brainfood builds life skills and promotes healthy living in a fun and safe environment. Local high school students participate in programs either twice a week after school or every day for five weeks during the summer. Activities include hands-on cooking classes, lectures, field trips and community service projects. Brainfood graduates are equipped with practical cooking skills, an introduction to the food industry, a framework for nutritious eating, and leadership experience that prepares them to make a difference in their community.
Washington Youth Choir
What started out as an inner-city high school choir in the seventies has evolved into an area-wide nonprofit organization that supports over thirty high school students. This special program offers committed kids an opportunity not only to sing but to receive instruction and counsel on college opportunities. The Louise P Zanar Fund underwrites the costs for 5-7 kids to participate in the choir for one-full-year. To find out more about the Washington Youth Choir, go to www.washingtonyouth choir.org.
