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44 maconmagazine.com | APRIL/MAY 2022 campuses of Mercer University and Mount de Sales Academy. Upon the new facility's hopeful 2023 opening, Redding- Andrews said she anticipates numbers will quickly reach 200 for lessons and foundation activities. She said many students coming for lessons and camps attend on scholarships if they are unable to pay. Going forward, 25 percent to 30 percent will be from underserved populations. "We're so grateful to have had the relationships we've had in conducting camps at other locations but, of course, it will be so much better having our own place," Redding-Andrews said. "Everything we need will be right there and participants, coaches and instructors can count on regular, definite dates from year to year. We can spend less time worrying about logistics and focus more on young people. That's the thing." During March ceremonies at the center's site, Redding- Andrews drew attention more on meeting young people's needs than on her father's famous name being on the building. "We, as a community, owe this to our young people," she said. "There's so much going on in the world right now to distract students from doing the right thing — to distract even us from doing the right thing. So, let's make a difference; let's be the change." Lisa Garrett is a retired career teacher and current member of the Bibb County Board of Education as well as the educational grant director for the Griffith Family Foundation. She said she knows firsthand the difference programs like the foundation's can make and looks forward to the larger impact it will have. "I've seen it personally, and research backs up that children who participate in fine arts programs do better academically," she said. "My history has been in Title I schools teaching economically disadvantaged children, and I know highlighting children's strengths in the arts is so helpful. It's amazing what children do in the Otis Redding Foundation's programs now, and I can only imagine what the new Otis Redding Center for the Arts will mean and do for so many more children in the days and years ahead." Redding-Andrews said that is the goal. "We want to make sure it's understood this is not about extending the legacy of Otis Redding by creating a place with his name on it," she said. "My father's musical legacy is well established, solid and doesn't really need our help. It will last forever. "What's important is extending that part of him that wanted to help kids who have dreams, like he had dreams, to become equipped to achieve them. What they learn and who they become here will help them be their best in all areas of life." The dream is, with community help, to build a place where dreams come true because young people have been inspired and equipped to make their dreams reality.