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www.amisun.com
THE SUN
AUGUST 15, 2018
Local singer sets sights on Nashville With the release of her first single, Montana Modderman is ready to reach for the stars as a country music artist. BY KRISTIN SWAIN SUN STAFF WRITER | kswain@amisun.com
Local musician Montana Modderman’s first single, “Didn’t Mean To” is out now and the 21-year-old is ready to take her singer/songwriter style of country music all the way to Nashville. “I’m super proud of it,” she said of the single, which she describes as “an unexpected love song.” The song is a delicate, almost melancholy piece with soaring refrains chronicling a story of how love is sometimes found in unexpected places, and featuring Modderman on both vocals and guitar. With her single now available for purchase on iTunes and to stream on Spotify, Modderman has set her sights on a bigger goal – moving to Nashville and recording an entire album. Once in Nashville, she hopes to collaborate with other artists and hopefully land a
KRISTIN SWAIN | SUN
Singer Montana Modderman hangs out at Coquina Beach enjoying the sun in the weeks before her first single “Didn’t Mean To” is released. record deal to help make her dreams of becoming a country music star a reality. “I’m so excited to be up there, to be in
Music City,” she said. “It’s a big move.” Modderman said she’s always known that she wants to be a singer. She’s been playing guitar since she was 13 and
songwriting since the age of 7. Born in Grand Rapids, her family moved to Bradenton Beach when she was in elementary school. Though she’s now settled in Bradenton, Island residents may know her from her work at local sweet spot Cupcake Delights. Modderman also had small parts in the films “Click Clack Jack” and “Growing Conscience” in 2008 and 2009, respectively. When she’s not working on her music, Modderman said she loves to come to the Island’s beaches, spend time with her family and friends, work on her writing and travel the globe. After her senior year of high school, she said the opportunity arose for her to travel to Paris for three weeks which she described as a “wonderful experience” that encouraged her to want to travel abroad more. Right now though, her focus is on promoting her music and making the move to Tennessee. “Even if I move, the Island will always have a special place in my heart,” she said. Fans can follow Modderman and her music on social media at www.facebook.com/montana.modderman.
AMI Rotary funds youth swim program The Rotary Club of Anna Maria Island recently celebrated another successful Learn to Swim program. 2018 was the club’s third year of coordinating with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Manatee County and the Bradenton YMCA to provide swimming lessons for at risk children in Manatee County who have little or no water safety knowledge. A certified YMCA instructor taught small groups of four to five children aged five to 10 years old basic safety skills such as moving in the water face down, using kicks and strokes, the roll over technique of floating on your back to breathe and how to make their way to the sides of the pool. These skills were taught along with the safety rules of “never swim alone” and “always ask permission to go into the water.”
Plenty of fun was thrown in to the learning experience with kicking contests, blowing bubbles, diving for rings and wearing goggles and flippers on their feet. “Because we are an Island community, the Rotary Club of Anna Maria Island feels a special responsibility to keep kids safe in the water and our program really exemplified that this year,” the Rotary Club press release said. The program ran through the month of July, with the goal of serving 100 local youths. The Rotary Club of Anna Maria Island hosts an annual golf tournament each spring to raise funds for the Learn to Swim program. The club also applied for and received grants from Rotary District 6960 and The Lakewood Ranch Rotary Club.
ROTARY CLUB OF ANNA MARIA | SUBMITTED
The Rotary Club of Anna Maria Island’s Learn to Swim program teaches swimming and water safety to at risk youths.