BELFAST — Belfast Flying Shoes (BFS), a local nonprofit focused on participatory music and dance, was awarded a $5000 Community Building Grant from the Waldo County Fund of the Maine Community Foundation to support their 2021 concert series for older adults: Sing Along and Tap Your Toes.

The program provides joyful in-person musical experiences for older adults in assisted living and congregate care, including those with dementia; cable and online viewers of all ages can tap their own toes and sing along with the recorded concerts. BFS is producing the program in collaboration with Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County (HVOWC) and Belfast Community Media. Additional funding for the program comes from Belfast Flying Shoes contributors and from the Holt Family Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.

“At the first concert in mid-June, we were thrilled by the level of participation,” said Chrissy Fowler, the board secretary of Belfast Flying Shoes, in a news release. “Residents smiled, sang, hummed, and moved with the music, just as we hoped. Thanks to this grant, countless others can enjoy the songs and tunes offered by the talented musical acts.”

Video recordings of Sing Along and Tap Your Toes concerts will be available via Belfast Community Media’s online and cable channels.

Flic Shooter, HWOWC director, says, “It’s fabulous that we are able to continue this program. Our concert series with Flying Shoes in 2020, bringing local musicians and our hospice volunteers together, was one of the bright spots in an otherwise dismal year.”

Belfast Flying Shoes was founded in 2005 with a mission to bolster the spirited dance and music community in Midcoast Maine. In addition to this collaboration with HVOWC, their programs include public dances, school residencies, workshops for musicians, and programs at the Maine Coastal Regional Reentry Center. For more information, visit www.belfastflyingshoes.org

Launched in 1990 when Waldo County was the poorest county in New England, according to BFS, the Waldo County Fund of the Maine Community Foundation provides permanent support to nonprofits in the region. Since 1992, the fund has awarded more than 200 grants to support organizations and projects that serve Waldo County.

To learn more about the Maine Community Foundation and the Waldo County Fund, visit www.mainecf.org