The charitable foundation set up in memory of former Augusta Free Press intern Tess Majors had a busy first year.
Majors, who would have turned 24 last week, was taken from us in 2019, the victim of murder in New York City, as she was returning to campus at Barnard College, where she was a first-semester freshman student.
Majors spent a good portion of her childhood in the Waynesboro-Charlottesville area, where she became known for her budding music career, and her penchant for writing.
ICYMI
- New album from Tess Majors, ‘The Voice Memos,’ earns praise from Rolling Stone
- Music Review: Patient 0, “Girl Problems”
Tess interned with us here at AFP in the spring of her senior year of high school at St. Anne’s-Belfield in Charlottesville, getting her feet wet as a journalist by covering a Waynesboro City Council meeting, and writing feature stories on the local arts and music scene.
Tess Majors’ AFP bylines
- Augusta County music scene: What to love, what it lacks
- Accessibility for all: Sarah’s app idea
- Local government matters: Civic engagement at Waynesboro City Council
- The musical melting pot: A look into life at the Music Resource Center
Her parents, Inman Majors and Christy Majors, launched the Tess Majors Foundation last year, with the goal of providing financial support to organizations that provide young people instruction in music, nature and the arts, especially in regions of the country where such opportunities may be lacking and programs can have a significant impact.
“The past year has been inspiring and rewarding, and the enthusiastic response to the foundation and its mission has far exceeded our greatest hopes,” Inman Majors wrote in an update to supporters of the Tess Majors Foundation that went out over the weekend.
The focus to date, Majors wrote in the email, “has been on smaller organizations where a $10,000-$20,000 gift can really go a long way.”
“Our conversations with these charities usually come down to a moment where we say, ‘Is there anything you need right now? Anything that could be of immediate impact?’” he wrote.
From the list of grants awarded by the foundation, I’d say there was plenty of immediate impact.
- TMF purchased a 15-passenger shuttle for The Launch Pad, a teen center in Prescott, Ariz., where kids can go after school and during the summer. At the Launch Pad, teenagers run their own coffee shop, among other things, and learn valuable work and communication skills. The shuttle has allowed The Launch Pad to double the number of kids (those lacking transportation) who can get to and from the center, and will also double the number of kids who can attend their summer camps.
- Provided four full-summer paid internships for teenagers in the Youth Leaders in Agriculture Program at Project Grows in Waynesboro. Project Grows raises and delivers healthy food to at-risk members of the community, including many senior citizens lacking access to fresh vegetables. The TMF internships triple (from 2-6) the number of young farmers working this summer.
- Provided 10 full scholarships to kids in need for a full, two-week session of Nature Camp in Vesuvius. Additionally, TMF will fund the Tess Majors Endowed Scholar, a 10-week position for an expert in some field pertinent to the camp’s educational experience. This year’s naturist is Lyt Wood, an arborist, forester and apiarist (bee keeper), who will bring decades of experience in the field to the learning process at the camp.
- Paid for 1,000 feet of paving for the nature path at Camp Light in Crimora. Camp Light is for special needs kids from all over the southeast, many of them confined to wheelchairs, and is 100% free to all campers. The path we are funding will allow all of the kids to enjoy the nature trail and bird observatory that is to be built (also funded by TMF).
- Co-sponsored the Music Resource Center’s “Certified” Program (along with Dave Matthews’ charitable organization) in Charlottesville, which trains high school kids in the skills necessary for technical jobs in the music industry, including certification in studio production and live sound. Participants are paid for their internship work and gain valuable experience working with professional musicians and in professional venues. In our two years of support for the program, 32 kids have benefited from our internships.
- Committed to pay for educational signage and a large map listing all trails for Camp Kum-Ba-Ya Nature Center in Lynchburg, which engages children, families and the community in meaningful outdoor activities. The interpretive signs will discuss native flora, fauna, and eco systems. One pathway will be designated “Tess’s Trail.”
Final words here from Inman Majors:
“It has been an amazing first year on so many fronts: getting back in touch with many old friends from our past; becoming acquainted with folks who knew Tess in some capacity or another; meeting so many incredibly generous and talented and community-minded people who do such important work in the nonprofit world; being reminded how many people Tess touched in her short life; being reminded how many people care about our family and its well-being; and seeing what a difference targeted gifting can make to smaller youth-oriented organizations.”
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Chris Graham
