Agawam Cultural Council announces grant recipients AGAWAM State Representative Daniel E. Keenan and Robert W. Kadis, Chair of the Agawam Cultural, have announced the award of 20 grants totaling $7,520 for cultural programs in Agawam. The grants were awarded from a pool of funds distributed to Agawam by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency that supports public programs and education activities in the arts, sciences and humanities. The Agawam Cultural Council is part of a grass-roots network of 335 local councils that serve every city and town in the state. The program is the largest, most decentralized one if its kind in the United States. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which then allocates funds to each local council. Decisions about which activities to support are made at the community level by a board of municipally appointed volunteers. "It's the local volunteers who really make this system work," Keenan said. "They make limited resources go as far as possible, and they make the tough decisions about which projects should be supported. Thanks to them, the arts, sciences and humanities are part of people's everyday lives in every community across the state." The members of the Agawam Cultural Council are: JoAnn Balakier, Barbara Cohen, Francis Collins, Thelma Coughlin, Darcy Davis, Sylvia Deliso, Jane Eitel, Mike Grandfield, Ginny Heyl, Betty Kadis, Robert Kadis, Sally Loos, Walter Mantani, Carrie Milliken, Scott Milliken, Patricia Souder, William Souder, Florida Tangocci. Statewide, more than $1.9 million will be distributed by local cultural councils in 2006. Grants will support an enormous range of grass-roots activities including concerts, exhibitions, radio and video productions, field trips for schoolchildren, after-school youth programs, writing workshops, historical preservation efforts, lectures, First Night celebrations, nature and science education programs for families and town festivals. From the total distribution, more that 40 percent will support educational activities for schoolchildren. Of this, over $575,000 will go out through the PASS Program, which provides subsidies for young people to attend cultural field trips. The Agawam Cultural Council will seek applications again in the Fall of 2006. Information and forms will be available at the Agawam Public Library and at the Agawam Cultural Council web site, www.agawamcc.org. Requests are due on October 15, 2006. This year's grants in Agawam are as follows: Betty Kadis Mark Twain Interpretation by John Pogson and Lisa Steier, $650 Jacqueline Sheehan Author, "Truth" A Novel of Sojourner Truth, $250 Lani Bortfeld Arcos/Iris String Quartet, Works of Nature, $550 Betty Kadis Judy Handler and Mark Levesque, Two Guitars Live Ensemble,$800 Kit and Kaboodle Productions Cinderella at the Red Door Theatre, $375 Robert Kadis Performance Platform, $320 Steve Henderson, Jerry Atrick, The Older I Get, $200 Debora Florek Visiting Guest Artist at the High School, $400 Davis Bates Earth Rhythms: Songs and Stories, $300 Richard Mitnick Rhapsody Concert, $650 Robinson Park School PTO Meet The Musicians, $500 Agawam Middle School Harmony Artists Performing at Symphony Hall, $250 Benjamin Phelps School PTO Meet The Musicians, $700 Patty Carpenter Music for Seniors Concert, $200 Thousand Cranes Studio Friends in Art, $360 James Clark School PTO West Indian Stories & Music Program, $250 James Clark School PTO Science Genie, $325 Clifford M. Granger School Mr. & Mrs. Fish, $200 Michael Myers Little Hands: A Musical Adventure, $200 Kathleen Bailer Language of Clay Library Project, $40. More information about the Agawam Cultural Council can be found at www.agawamcc.org.