The group, composed of total beginners, fledgling fiddlers and a handful of experienced musicians, has been meeting weekly to learn what Gilman, a regionally acclaimed and beloved musician, has to offer. After 12 weeks of fiddle nurturing by Gilman, the group is ready to share the fun.

With a special performance of “Old Time fiddle music,” at the upcoming CREATE Project event, “Celebrating Creativity and Children: A Gathering of Caring Community,” the group is sure to entertain and please! The free event will be Friday from 5:15 to 7:15 p.m. at the Dunkirk High School Cafeteria, 75 W. Sixth St. Everyone is welcome!

The celebration is designed to uplift, inform and unify our community in the goal to become known as a child-centered and arts-centered place. The CREATE Project wants to help our area to become free of child trauma, abuse and neglect through the positive, intergenerational arts-based experiences.

A recognized tradition-bearer, Gilman generously volunteered to pass on his extensive knowledge through the CREATE Project to anyone willing to learn. Old time fiddle is a genre of American folk music. Tunes were derived from European folk dance tunes such as Jig, Reel, Breakdown, Schottische, Waltz, Two Step and Polka. The fiddle may be accompanied by banjo or other instruments but are nevertheless called “fiddle tunes.”

Submitted Photo Dick Gilman plays the violin.

Merging gentle humor and accomplished skill, Gilman patiently guides his CREATE Project adult fiddle students in technique and history.

He explained that Old-time fiddle music is largely dance centered and not song centered. Many of its songs are verses to dance tunes, and most of its songs were meant for solo and unaccompanied performance in their oldest form. Gilman also encouraged his CREATE Project students to learn the “skeleton” of a tune, and then to “make it their own” with fun techniques such as “shuffles” and “slurs.” Gilman commented, “This music is like old fashioned square dance music. That’s where the fun is.”

Much of this music came out of the hollows of the Appalachian Mountains, and has its roots in British Isles. Gilman’s classes are based on the oral tradition; you do not need to know how to read music to have fun! Carmen Gilman, an artist and painter, and Gilman’s wife, plays the guitar and hammer dulcimer.

Accompanying his fiddle with her guitar, Carmen provides a beat for the CREATE Project fiddle class as they learn different old time tunes. Traditional old time fiddle tunes, rich in historical significance, such as Angeline the Baker, Boil ’em Cabbage Down,”Cluck Old Hen, Cripple Creek, the Eighth of January and Ida Red are part of the musical vocabulary of the students now. Mississippi Sawyer, Red Wing, Sally Goodin’, Soldier’s Joy, The Tennessee Waltz and other tunes were enhanced by Dicks’s stories of specific fiddlers Dick and Carmen knew, historical context and popular folklore.

Learning the tunes and keeping the beat is not only fun, but may have therapeutic value as well.

In the online magazine Pitchfork, Jayson Green examines how certain sounds linger and live in our minds. In his article, “Can Music Heal Trauma? Exploring the Therapeutic Powers of Sound,” Green discusses how live music is used to help newborn infants in some neonatal intensive care units to calm themselves down and breathe naturally on their own.

The babies nurse more successfully and fall sleep with greater ease. A Remo ocean disk — a drum with beads inside of it that whoosh back and forth, mimics the sound of fluids flowing in the womb. Another instrument can recreate the rhythm of a mother’s heartbeat. Green comments on the profound realization that “hearing your parents’ voices vibrating through the breastbone, lying on their chest and feeling the pulse of their heart-for most humans, this is the first music . . . We store these sounds deep in our limbic system, our emotional brain where we register feelings and sensations.” Green shares some reflections by Katie Down, a music therapist in New York City who worked with refugees in Bosnia and children from rough neighborhoods in America, “Everyone experiences trauma at some point in their lives. Music is a way in. … Music can help traumatized populations create a sense of normalcy, joy, expression.”

Down asserts that our bodies react to sound and that we connect to music and sound because “we are, in essence, ‘music’ . . . made of vibration, which is movement, which is life.” At some point, all trauma therapy centers around the idea of reconnection.

Throughout history, humans have recovered from trauma by coming together. Indeed, Susanne Babbel, Ph.D., M.F.T comments “Community support is a vital tool in preventing child abuse and the PTSD that can result from it” in her article, “The Lingering Trauma of Child Abuse.”

Connections are essential to healing trauma — for individuals, families and society. Whether it’s through sharing a love of children, the arts and community; blossoming friendships; or old time fiddle music, one goal of the CREATE Project is to create human connections. When safe spaces are created for children and adults to express themselves, explore their feelings and become aware of the sensations in their bodies, they feel what it means to be human.

The CREATE Project hopes to help our area become known as a child-centered and arts-centered community. The CREATE Project is an intergenerational, arts-based community intervention, designed to help our area become free of child trauma, abuse and neglect, and to become a place where children can grow to their highest potential. The Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation is the fiscal sponsor and the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Chautauqua County is the lead community partner. Though we work cooperatively together, the CREATE Project is a separate entity and operates as such. For more information, go to the website: www.create-project.com or www.gofundme.com/create-project.