High School Elementary Musicianship Mentoring Association (HEMMA) board members said this week that applications are available online for elementary school-aged students to sign up to take part in the program, which will start running in January.

“It’s a fantastic program,” said HEMMA President Richie Sadlon, a senior at Newtown High School.

HEMMA connects elementary students with high school-aged music mentors. Each of the high school students involved in HEMMA receive community service hours in return for mentoring the elementary school-aged musicians.

Last school year roughly 40 high school students worked as mentors and 200 elementary school students took part in the program.

Applications for elementary students to participate in this year’s program are now being accepted. The deadline for elementary students to apply to the program is November 7.

According to HEMMA’s website, , the annual cost of lessons is $20.nhshemma.wix.com/newtownhemma

Links to the application forms are also available on the Newtown HEMMA Facebook page.

Richie added that HEMMA is a great way for younger students to have inexpensive music lessons.

Fellow HEMMA board members Sophie Kennen and Julia Preszler agreed.

Sophie, a junior at NHS, said she has heard from parents of former HEMMA elementary-aged musicians that the students love the program.

Julia said HEMMA is an interesting experience for both the elementary students and the high school students.

Former NHS student Grace Clark, who graduated last June, began HEMMA as part of her Girl Scout Gold Award, and Richie, Julia, and Sophie, all said Grace left the program running smoothly. Richie credited Grace for making the running of HEMMA easy this year for its board members.