Current Projects:

Roots on the River

Relatively new to Music Sparks Meaning, but longstanding in the community is the Roots on the River Concert Series. Previously helmed by the Manistee Jaycees, Roots on the River is a run of 5+ free community concerts on the riverwalk gazebo by Veterans Memorial Park. All of our board members were impacted in some way to pursue music by attending Roots on the River events in our youth - we are living proof of the importance of the series in our community. We are excited to continue the series and make an impact in Manistee!

In 2024, we had a ‘pass the torch’ transition year with the Manistee Jaycees. After operating our Summer Sun Sets series and Roots on the River in the same year, we saw more potential success in continuing Roots on the River as it has been a longstanding staple in the community and we saw better attendance rates compared to Summer Sun Sets. With limited resources, we decided it was better to discontinue the Summer Sun Sets and pour our effort, energy, and funding into Roots to ensure it continues.

We also tried adding a 4th of July event with live music all day after the parade and alcohol sales, lawn games, raffles, and more, but after 2 years of trying various avenues decided that the added event was not financially feasible as the local’s attendance was elsewhere during the busy 4th of July weekend. We are still, however, committed to ensuring the long term financial sustainability of Roots and have shifted our model this year for the series to ‘stand on it’s own’, with the hopes of community support, grants, and sponsors to fund the series. All this to say that we are excited and hopeful for 2026 and beyond for the future of Roots on the River. We are committed to continuing our mission in Manistee and bringing people together to enjoy live music!

Crescendo: A Youth Outreach Initiative

In 2024, we tested the waters with a ‘Music in Schools’ program. We had the goal of bringing professional musicians directly into schools to provide a unique and memorable learning experience. With a trial run in the Manistee Middle/High School band class, we found a lot of potential and learned how we want to approach and build the program. There are countless benefits and case studies to reference as to the long-lasting rewards in communities that have these types of programs can have; we still believe that this is the right direction for Music Sparks Meaning in the future.

We piloted different variations of the program throughout 2025, including 4 different 3-day summer camps in partnership with the Ludington Area Center for the Arts. We learned a lot in a very short time. One of our largest pain points was that we were subsidizing the program with hopes of grants and sponsors/donors. This wasn’t feasible with our current operating budget so we have shifted our approach to ensure long term programmatic sustainability. We will still be offering Crescendo for free if schools/facilities can’t afford it, but we will be casting a wide net and adding those schools to a ‘wait list’ so that we can pursue grants with a list of interested schools already prepared; when we get the funding we can execute on the programming right away! All in all, we are very excited to continue to develop the educational side of our organization and expand our offerings as an enrichment program.

In addition to shifting our overall strategy, we have tweaked the program itself from a single day workshop to a 3-8 day program (using the success of our LACA partnership as a case-study on how to improve!). This added instructional time with the students will lead to greater and more measurable outcomes for everyone!

These programs were made possible in 2024 in part by grants from the Manistee County Community Foundation - Limitless Fund and the Manistee Community Foundation - John D. and Michelle M. Bueker Music Fund, the Manistee County Community Foundation