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New foundation helps legacy of Tess Majors live on through music, nature

Chris Graham

tess majors The legacy of Tess Majors, a St. Anne’s-Belfield alum and former AFP intern, will live on through a new foundation established in her name.

The Tess Majors Foundation will support and partner with organizations that provide young people instruction in music, nature, and the arts, with a focus on programs in regions of the country where such opportunities may be lacking.

The foundation is an effort from Majors’ parents, Inman and Christy, which they formally launched last week, on what would have been Tess’ 23rd birthday.

Tess Majors was murdered in 2019 at the end of her first semester at Barnard College in New York City.

Three New York teens were sentenced in her death, two to lengthy prison terms, the third to a juvenile facility.

Majors had spent time during her final semester at St. Anne’s-Belfield as an intern with AFP. She wrote stories about the local music scene, with her first story being a feature on the Music Resource Center, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit that offers professional-quality sound production to local students in grades 6-12 for fees as low as $1 per year.

The Tess Majors Foundation is partnering with the Music Resource Center in the 2024-2025 school year to co-sponsor the MRC’s certified internship program.

Nature and the outdoors were also important to Majors, and the Tess Majors Foundation is partnering with Nature Camp to support full and partial need-based scholarships for campers in Augusta, Albemarle, Rockbridge and Rockingham counties, and with Echo Hill Outdoor School, with the foundation sponsoring 2024 scholarships for Heart Camp, which provides a week-long camp experience for children with heart and/or lung transplants or pulmonary hypertension.

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to Substack or his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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