PITTSBURG, Kan. — It used to be quite difficult for musicians in the southeast Kansas region to locate jazz camps nearby, with the nearest ones being in the Kansas City or Springfield areas. However, since 2024, jazz enthusiasts have been offered the opportunity to stay home with the annual Josiah Fletcher Jazz Camp, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 8.

The jazz camp was established following the death of Josiah Fletcher, who died in a car crash on March 2, 2023, along KS-171. An attendee of George Nettels Elementary School, Pittsburg Community Middle School, and a senior at Pittsburg High School at the time of his death, Fletcher had a passion of music, a member of the school’s marching band, pep band, orchestra band, and pit band for musicals.

Later on, the Fletcher Family of Erin, Joshua, and Alexa met with Todd Hastings of Pittsburg State University and Cooper Neil of Pittsburg High School to find a way to carry on his passion for inclusion and music. The Josiah Fletcher Foundation was developed and soon, the Josiah Fletcher Jazz Camp.

“After Josiah passed and everything, we talked with Dr. Hastings at PSU,” said Erin. “We were trying to find something that would be beneficial to the students around here and was really needed and he came right in with an idea for a jazz camp ... With Dr. Hastings and Cooper Neil, they run it and they do such a great job, and we work behind the scenes.

“... I’ve looked and it’s still the case, it is the only jazz band camp within several miles of us. The closest one I could find was in Kansas City, and another one that was further off was in Tennessee. It’s the same length of time and it’s much, much more intensive. We purposely kept this at an affordable rate and so that it’s not a huge investment but the kids still get to work with professionals, get to learn these great skills, and then they also, because we are local, they get to go home.”

The camp returns to the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts on the campus of PSU for its third year starting Monday, June 8, through Tuesday, June 9. The two-day music camp is open to sixth through 12th grade students and is designed “to meet the needs of those students who are interested in jazz at all levels.” Students participate in big band performance, jazz theory, master classes, jazz combos, and improvisation.

“The really unique thing they get to do here is improv, which is something that really jazz band doesn’t get to do during the school year,” said Erin.

To Erin and many of those who attend the annual camp, the Josiah Fletcher Jazz Camp is a family environment, creating friendships and memories that carry on for years.

“They love it,” she said. “The parents especially love it because I think they can tell how much of a unique experience this really is because you don’t get to do this very often at all. The kids have a great time, too. So much so that I ran into a student the other day and he’s gone all three years. He’s enrolled this year too, but he loves it and he’s told me that he wears his jazz camp shirt everywhere, all the time.”

For more information, visit josiahfletcherfoundation.org or email josiahfletcherfoundation@gmail.com.

This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews.