Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement is the world's largest organization dedicated to educating students in grades K-12 about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programs.

I always think about JA this time of year because this was when every winter in the late 1960s, Sing-Out South was invited to peform and have a booth display at the annual Junior Achievement Trade Fair where members of JA got to show off and sell the wares and the products they were producing in their mini-businesses.

The JA Fair was held in the lower level of the Nashville Municipal Auditorium located on James Robertson Parkway downtown. This is also where SOS performed several times as a part of the city's annual birthday breakfast celebration honoring the formation of Metro Government on April 1, 1962.

The Auditorium space downstairs was nicknamed "Sherwood Forrest," by some, because of its somewhat low-hanging ceiling and all the columns it contained to prop up the performing level floor of the Auditorium right above.

Over the years, Sing-Out South performed under lots of different and unique sitiuations. With our cast on top of our multi-level stage, you can see (above)how low the ceiling was as we performed the song UP WITH PEOPLE during one of our shows at the JA Trade Fair back in 1968 or 1969.

Obviously, it wasn't always a problem. When some of our small groups performed and the rest of cast got to sit down, we had plenty of room. This photo is from the same JA Trade Show back in either 1968 or '69.

As I mentioned earlier, along with performing, SOS also got the chance to have its own booth display and sell its wares such as PACE Magazine, Up With People record albums, MRA books and other materials, along with recruiting new cast members. The photo above appears to be from 1968 or 1969 due to its display materials concerning the World Sing-Out Festival. I suspect the photo below is from the JA Fair in 1967 because of the books and other materials being displayed and its emphasis on Moral Rearmament...

When I checked the web site for Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee, it does not appear a JA Fair is held anymore. After focusing for many years on the high school level following its national founding in 1919 and its creation in Nashville in 1957, Junior Achievement has "gradually expanded and its activities and broadened its scope to encompass an ever-widening student population." That includes being a part of offering programs free of charge in the local school system through volunteers with age-appropriate curricula reaching down into both the elementary and junior high classrooms.That includes an on-line world with JA TITAN, a business stimulation exercise delivered via the Internet, and an interdiscplinary experiential learning program for 5th graders where they operate the businesses of a pretend town for a day.

We've sure come a long way from Sherwood Forest, I guess. The Muncipal Auditorium basement is still used for shows and activities. I recently took my then-3-year grandson there for a model train show. He loved it!