The Center for Irish Music moved into its new classroom space at the Celtic Junction just as the recession got rolling—a stroke of bad timing that made early supporters of the community music school brace for the worst. “We had 60 students at the time, and we really worried about what the future would look like, or if we’d even survive,” says Emily Flagstad, the CIM’s assistant director. “But the magic of the building is that it brought us all together for the first time, and students started mingling before and after class, and meeting other like-minded people who really wanted to see traditional Irish music thrive.”

While music lessons can seem like an extravagance when families are faced with tough budget choices, she says, “to our amazement, people didn’t give up on the CIM. In fact, we had students who lost their jobs but decided to take up fiddle lessons for the first time. When people are going through hard times, I think they look for community, and the CIM has been lucky to be the beneficiary of a community of really incredible volunteers.”

Since 2010, the number of year-round students at the CIM has more than tripled, and the school’s finances are sound, thanks in large part to a committed corps of volunteers who pitched in on nearly every job that needed doing. From the anonymous donor who guaranteed all of the CIM’s expenses for two years during the recession, to song student Mary Lane, who donated her time cleaning music classrooms once a week, “nearly everything that has helped make the CIM what it is today got started thanks to a volunteer,” says executive director Norah Rendell. “It says a lot about this community that nearly everyone who has been a student, instructor, parent, or a participant has also given their time to make sure we succeed at our mission.”

Here’s a look the many hands who have helped make the work a little lighter at the Center for Irish Music.