Each year the Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival brings the streets of Downtown Cary to life with art, music and food. One of the goals of the Lazy Daze Planning Committee is to return money into the Cary community in the form of grants to non-profit organizations. The Lazy Daze grant program is directed toward projects that benefit the Cary community and its citizens. Since the inception of the Lazy Daze Grants Program, more than $415,000 has been returned to the local community.
2007 Lazy Daze Grant Recipients
The Cary-Apex Piano Teachers Association represents over 1,000 youth and adult piano students comprising a vital part of this area’s cultural landscape. The Lazy Daze grant will allow the Association to sponsor its annual guest recital, which is free and open to the public, as well as the annual student master class, which provides students with an opportunity for focused musical growth.
Cary Children’s Concert Choir’s mission is to provide young participants with all of the skills and experiences that are conducive to life-long music-making and they plan to use their Lazy Daze Grant to offer a master class by Sandy Holland, Director of the Charlotte Children’s Choir. The master class will offer a new experience for the children allowing them to expand their musical experience.
Cary Ballet will use the Lazy Daze grant to fund its annual “Celebration of Children in the Arts” festival this October. This celebration showcases talented local youth in dance, martial arts, musical and various other performances, and allows families to create art to take home at a free, flexible-time festival. Artwork by local students will be displayed and there will be wide range of craft activities. This harvest festival-themed event is greatly anticipated every year.
Cary Band Boosters Club plans to promote the 50th Cary Band Day with their grant. With a full slate of 40 plus bands coming to celebrate the 50th anniversary they are hoping to gather people from all over NC and the southeast to admire these wonderful marching band students and use their grant to advertise the event.
The Lazy Daze grant to the Cary Community Choir is earmarked for their annual presentation of Handel’s Messiah, which, having taken place since 1971, is one of Cary’s oldest cultural arts events. Local singers undertake a seasonal round of rehearsals that will improve their skills and knowledge of the music. The Lazy Daze funds will be used for professional soloists, an organist, and the orchestra that help make this cherished holiday event such a valued community event.
The Cary Family YMCA will use its grant to support its Camp Y-Rageous program: an eight week summer day camp free to children who live in selected communities. Many of these children would be home alone during the summer, but through Camp Y-Rageous they are able to participate in educational programs, assemblies, clinics, swim lessons, and other valuable activities at no cost. The grant awarded here will go toward enhancing the arts & craft component of the camp.
Cary High School NJROTC provides over 75 color guard units for the community each year including events at Cary High, the Town of Cary, Cary area Churches and other community events. Costs for equipment and travel represent a significant expense and the Lazy Daze Grant offered to them will help these teens look their best while they defend their Area 6 Champion title for the 2007-2008 school year.
Cary Photographic Artists is a newly formed cultural arts group focusing on photography. Their grant will be used to support them in their goal to present several local exhibitions in the next year including the purchase of exhibition racks, a projector, web-site development and more.
The Cary Players’ mission to produce family oriented theater—enjoyable for adults, yet appropriate for children—enables Cary residents of all ages to enjoy live theater together. The Lazy Daze grant will help underwrite the cost of their production of Love Bits and Bites 2008 to be held at Page-Walker Arts & History Center next month.
The Cary Public Library offers a variety of adult programs throughout the year. This past year they implemented a yearlong Aspiring Writer Workshop series featuring different authors and lecturers speaking on their genre specialties. The Laze Daze Grant will help to defray the costs of this program and others offered by the library.
This year an outstanding graduating senior who has served the Cary Teen Council with distinction will be awarded the Lazy Daze Scholarship. The Teen Council initiates, organizes, supervises and conducts programs and civic projects of all types, benefiting the youth of Cary and surrounding communities and helping to develop leadership qualities in its members. The Lazy Daze scholarship helps celebrate these leadership qualities.
The Cary Town Band is an important part of this community, as they regularly are requested to play special events for the Town and others. This year they plan to present six or seven concerts at the Bond Park Senior Center, as well as the annual patriotic concert on July 3 at the Bond Park Amphitheatre, a pre-symphony performance on July 4 at the Koka Booth Amphitheatre, a performance at Lazy Daze and more. The Band will use its grant for various expenses of its 2008 concert schedule.
Cary Visual Art will use its grant to partially fund its Public Art in Focus Lecture Series at the Page-Walker Arts and History Center. This lecture series features nationally recognized public art professionals and is designed to increase community exposure to a variety of public art forms and to generate interest in Cary’s potential for more public art.
A beloved local institution, the Concert Singers of Cary produce a wide spectrum of concerts that address the vocal music interests of as many Cary-area residents as possible. Their programs include concerts by the 120+ member symphonic choir, the chamber choir, the new middle-school age chorus, and solo voice recitals by professional singers. The Concert Singers’ grant will underwrite costs for their Spring Concert Series.
Diamante, Inc. was founded to be a catalyst for change in our community by nourishing cultural and community participation among Hispanics and Hispanic-Americans. They will be using their Lazy Daze grant money to support Festival Ritmo Latino Music, Dance and Art Festival to be held in Bond Park this summer.
Fine Arts League of Cary provides continuing education for its members through regularly scheduled programs and encourages artists by offering opportunities to exhibit their visual art and contribute to the cultural environment of the community. They are hoping to use the funds to continue the tradition of no entry fees for their Annual Teen Show and Annual Members Show keeping artists costs to a minimum and encouraging more people to create and enter in these shows.
Friends of Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve is dedicated to promoting awareness of Hemlock Bluffs and encouraging citizens to appreciate it and all the wonders of nature. With the current widening of Kildaire Farm Road an opportunity has arisen to incorporate integrated public art as part of a new entrance gate. The Lazy Daze grant money given to them will help them to accomplish this goal.
The Friends of Page-Walker serve as the guardians of the Page-Walker Arts & History Center and advocate preservation of all Cary historic sites by archiving history and facilitating history education. They will be continuing their mission of documenting the remembrances of long-time Cary residents and promoting preservation of Cary’s historic structures through their Historic Preservation Speaker Series focusing on Cary’s endangered and overtaken historical structures.
The Heart of Cary Association has long been a key sponsor of the Cary Downtown Farmer’s Market. This grant will help the organization in their efforts to design a shelter for the Farmer’s Market in Downtown Cary, allowing the Farmer’s Market to have a strong presence in the downtown area and be recognized as an important, enduring characteristic of downtown Cary.
Hum Sub, Inc. will be using funds from their grant to bring the Indian festival of lights celebration, Diwali, as well as the spring festival, Basant Bahaar, free to the people of Cary. They will be promoting greater awareness of the Indian social and cultural traditions through family oriented cultural activities.
Life Experiences is an organization that works to provide fulfilling employment for adults with developmental disabilities allowing them to function as independent, productive citizens. By implementing an arts and crafts program using the Lazy Daze grant money, they hope to help these adults explore their creative side as well as expose them to cultural activities they may not have been able to experience before such as going to a play or visiting the art museum, enriching their lives and improving their quality of life.
The Martin Luther King , Jr. Taskforce of Cary is a cultural organization whose purpose is to continue the tradition of annual observance celebrating the life, work and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to dismantle racism and to promote the beloved community. Funds from the Lazy Daze grant will be used to support the execution of nine events throughout the year commemorating Dr. King’s life, showcasing artists, performers, African Americans and other diverse people’s contributions to the world.
The NC Eid Festival, Inc will be using their Lazy Daze Grant to offer an opportunity for the community to learn a more about Muslim culture. Eid, or the Festival of Feasts marks the end of the fasting month of Ramadan and this cultural festival will bring a Bazaar, food, music, arts and dance from all over the world to our corner of the Triangle.
Another local group working to introduce all people to other cultures is the Nepal Center of North Carolina and their Lazy Daze Grant will be going toward holding a Spring Festival featuring a display of costumes, dances, songs, and more of the people of Nepal.
The Philharmonic Association has a mission to provide an opportunity for young musicians to learn, understand and perform great symphonic and jazz music. This grant will help off set the costs of sheet music, expenses for guest soloists, conductors and composers and rehearsal spaces.
Sister Cities Association is dedicated to fostering international understanding by establishing liaisons with cities in other countries. This year they are proposing a project designed to stimulate creative literary expressions in youths from here and from our Sister Cities through poetry in the theme of “Poetry for Peace: Our Youth’s Perspective on Global Diplomacy.”
The Lazy Daze grant for the Triangle Wind Ensemble will be going towards the costs of presenting their 3rd Annual Summer Pops concert in Sertoma Amphitheatre in Bond Park. They will be offering the concert for free for the enjoyment of the public and they will be purchasing great music to share with everyone.
Veteran’s Freedom Park will use their Lazy Daze grant to continue working on the Veterans History and Records Restoration Project. By collecting first person veteran oral histories and helping to restore the millions of veteran records that were lost, the Veteran’s Freedom Park helps keep the stories of our veterans whole and helps us to learn about the past.