Walk the Beat White Lake hosted its annual spring kickoff event Wednesday, March 11, highlighted by another sizable giveaway of musical instruments and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp scholarships to deserving local students.
A total of 33 musical instruments were given away thanks to partnerships with Guitar Haven in Grand Haven and Meyer Music in Grand Rapids, said Walk the Beat Executive Director Sara Kane-Smart. The Olsen Family Foundation also provided 1.5 full scholarships for the Blue Lake camp, and Scheid Plumbing Heating and Cooling sponsored a student too. In all, $16,000 in Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp scholarships were awarded.
"The enthusiasm is contagious, just to see the smiles on their faces," Kane-Smart said. "The Whitehall students are involved now, the Montague students, both (cities') mayors. We have nine nonprofits that sell raffle tickets for us, and they get half the money back. Building the community through music is what we're all about."
The increase in awards this year is the result of great work by the organization's fundraising team over the last year, Kane-Smart said. Terry Graham's relationship-building with local businesses was a major factor in the success of the 2025 festival, which provided the money for the 2026 kickoff event's awards.
"I'm the executive director, but Terry is the money man," Kane-Smart said. "I get to look like the heroine because I get to give away the awards."
The festival is set for its fourth edition July 18 with 13 venues. Last season's celebration downsized to 10 venues to emphasize walkability, but this year will see the return of the Lewis House bed and breakfast in Whitehall, The Playhouse at White Lake and the Book Nook & Java Shop as venues, upping the total to 13. (The Book Nook was one of several local businesses to serve as an impromptu venue last year after poor weather forced several acts inside.) That means 26 acts will perform at this year's festival. Asamu Johnson and the Associates of the Blues, a regular at Walk the Beat, was voted last year's fan favorite act.
There's also a youth-friendly venue planned for Covell Park, with youth coordinator Stephanie Abbott helping put that together. There will be kid-friendly door prizes - there are door prizes at every venue, but as some of them are for local pubs, the awards need to be tweaked to be recognizably kid-friendly - and Kane-Smart hopes to provide a musical instrument "petting zoo," allowing local children to try out some instruments themselves in hopes of sparking interest in performing. Ideally, there could even be a band made up of youth performers for the venue.
For more information on the event, visit walkthebeat.org/whitelake.
"A list of the (event) sponsors is on our site, so if people want to, they can support those businesses and let people there know that we appreciate their help," Kane-Smart said.
