Welcome!

And thank you for visiting our site! The Wesley Academy of Music (WAM) is a non-profit organization that exists to provide free musical training to financially disadvantaged children in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Whether a future student, a potential donor, or just someone with an appreciation for music education, we hope that you will explore our website to find out more about this ministry. Check out the video below to get an idea of what we are all about here at WAM.

Thank you and God bless,

David W. Goins

Director, Wesley Academy of Music

Video used with permission from United Methodist Communications
Additional United Methodist audio/video resources can be found here.

Contact Us

Mailing and Physical Address:

Wesley Academy of Music
211 Washington Street
Frankfort, KY 40601

Phone: (502) 227 – 7430

Email: wesleyacademyofmusic@gmail.com

NOTICE OF NONDISCRIMINATORY POLICY AS TO STUDENTS

The Wesley Academy of Music, LLC admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Our Mission

“It is our hope that through lessons at WAM, students will increase personal capacity, discipline, and self-esteem while enhancing their musical education and building strong mentor-student relationships with their teachers.”

Moving Forward

In the Wesley Academy of Music’s first year, 26 students participated in free lessons in trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba, flute, clarinet, piano, and violin. As it’s second year approaches, the Academy is offering its first-ever summer music camps and is preparing to offer lessons to more students in more areas for the fall and spring.

Our History:

The Wesley Academy of Music began as a mission idea by David Goins when he took the job as Director of Music and Worship at First United Methodist Church. It was his desire for the music programs of the church to have an external mission to aide in teaching the children of the community of the love of Christ through music. It was also the desire to allow for music to be a way for underserved children to equip themselves with tools they could use throughout their entire life. After several years of wishing and planning, opportunity for funding of this mission arose with a performance of the Broadway musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” as part of the church’s Summer Chautauqua Concert Series. The proceeds of the “Joseph” performances allowed for the Wesley Academy of Music to get off the ground and begin teaching students.

Greetings!  I hope that this letter finds you happy and healthy and away from the fears and tribulations that come with the COVID virus.

I want to update you on several items of “note” concerning the Wesley Academy of Music and how the COVID pandemic has affected us and continues to affect its operations.  I also want to give you information about the future and how excited we are for the coming months.

It goes without saying that when the pandemic hit, we shut down our operations as part of our desire to keep our teachers and our students safe.  We also decided, after several months of isolation, to NOT pursue virtual instruction during the 2020-2021 school year.  Although the public school systems were attempting to operate as much as possible given the situation, we did not feel that virtual private music instruction would be effective learning.  Given the limited funds we have, we also did not feel that it was the best use of funds that donors had entrusted us with.

Our goal was to resume lessons once it was safe and it appeared that this fall would be the time to start.  However, the Delta variant had other plans for us and we have had to wait due to the rules and regulations of our host organization, First United Methodist Church.  Since they govern our use of the facilities which we use, we must follow their lead on the safety of those using the facilities.  While it appears that the facilities will be available soon, it seems to be best for us from a curricular and momentum standpoint to wait until January 2022 to begin teaching private lessons again.   It goes without saying that this all depends on the current health situation in our community and we still may have to postpone instruction but we are hoping for more vaccines and lower infection numbers before resuming. 

This decision also allows us to properly advertise the program to students in the school (we have not been allowed in the school buildings due to COVID) and gives us time to sign up possible students and assign teachers.  This process takes several weeks in a normal year.

All of the funds donated to the Academy are being safely stored in escrow at First United Methodist Church.  As of right now, we have $10,291.81 in that account which will easily get us through a semester of teaching.  We will continue to raise funds and continue to spread the message of this great mission in coming days and weeks.  Until then, we will guard our funds to make the most of these dollars.

As part of our masterplan, we have also applied for 501(c)3 non-profit charity status with the Internal Revenue Service which will allow us to apply for grant funding and to grow to meet the needs of more children.  Unfortunately, we have not received notification that this has been approved due to a serious back-log at the IRS due to COVID.  We hope that can be approved in the coming months as well.

I hope this helps give you an understanding of where we have been, where we are currently, and where we want to go.  We want to act responsibly toward those we teach and those we employ as teachers by keeping them safe and we also want to responsibly guard our resources which have been so generously given.

We will continue to update you on the status of our operations and hope that we can start back very soon.  Thank you for investing yourself in this cause and for looking after the children in our community.

Respectfully,

David W. Goins

Founder/Director

Wesley Academy of Music