Press Room
SUU DEpartment of Music Faculty Dr. Patrick Roulet Receives Larson Legacy Foundation Grant
For Immediate Release: February 29, 2008
(Southern Utah University, Cedar City, Utah) SUU Department of Music faculty, Dr. Patrick Roulet, was awarded a grant from the Larson Legacy Foundation for $3,000 to fund his ongoing "Ghana Project". The grant provides funding for percussion instruments for his students at Fiddler's Canyon Elementary School in Cedar City, UT.
"In the past, the students used metal garbage cans or shared just a few drums among the entire class," Roulet said in a recent interview. The grant from the Larson Legacy Foundation provides funding for African talking drums, mallets, hand drums, bongos, cowbells, and other African percussion instruments – a wonderful and varied selection for Roulet's students at Fiddler's.
In 2006, Roulet traveled to Ghana to take part in a scholarly exchange program with the University of Ghana. Roulet's trip was also funded by a generous grant from the Larson Legacy Foundation. Since then, he has been sharing experiences from his trip with his students at Southern Utah University as well as his students at Fiddler's Canyon Elementary School.
The Ghana Project is a service-learning project that Roulet hopes will increase cultural and musical awareness of world music throughout the Southern Utah region.
Read more about Patrick's trip to Ghana online at www.patroulet.blogspot.com. Also, find video clips from his trip of Ghana drummers teaching and performing at youtube.com/user/ghanaproject.
Among its many charitable pursuits, the Larson Legacy Foundation supports sustainable projects that bring art and music to schoolchildren.