I have noticed that youth programs are not available in the mechanical
music societies.  As far as I know there is no serious effort to reach
our youth with this hobby.  Looking through AMICA or MBSI bulletins,
the pictures tell the tale: not many pictures of kids involved.
Perhaps future meetings and rallies will have to be held in the nursing
homes.

Other hobbies and sports have built on youth programs.  A few examples
are shooting sports, racing and rodeo.  When I was in grade school,
all the small towns in the Texas Panhandle had a rodeo.  By the time
I graduated high school it was a dying sport.

Fearing that the cowboy arts would be lost, the oldsters started
sponsoring events for the youngsters.  Some events were invented and
developed just for youth rodeo: ribbon racing, mutton busting, goat tie
down, pole bending, stick horse racing.  As they improved their skill
and grew up they moved into regular rodeo.  High school and college
rodeo are very big now.   Look at the TV guide: rodeo is a large
spectator and participant sport.

There will always be collectors for the large and expensive instruments.
Not so the foot pumper.   Developing the taste and passion for the
music and the instrument in our youth is the only way the instrument
and the society can survive.

Jon Guy