The Smithfield Lions Club has announced its annual James A. Bland Memorial Music Scholarship Contest to be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 4, at Trinity United Methodist Church, 201 Cedar St.

This is the first rung of an escalating series of contests (local, regional, district and state) sponsored by the Lions Clubs of the State of Virginia, culminating in scholarships for music study. The local preliminary contest is open to students attending elementary, middle, junior or senior high school (or equivalent homeschooled level) who are residents of Virginia.

Contestants are not required to be from Smithfield but can enter only one local contest. For those advancing as far as the state finals, the Lions award scholarships of $2,500 for first place, $2,000 for second place, $1,500 for third place and $1,000 for fourth, fifth and sixth places to vocal and instrumental finalists.

Interested instrumentalists and vocalists may obtain contest rules and download applications by visiting the Smithfield Lions Club website at https://smithfield-lions.com/explore-our-impact-1.  Then click the “download application” button at the bottom of the Bland Music information.

Contestants should return completed applications to Lions Club members Katie Lemon (lemon2@hotmail.com) or Lion Jon May (jmay@fathomrealty.com), who can also answer questions. Deadline for completed applications is Feb. 24.

Spectators can attend the competition for free.