Gardens all along the Oregon Coast are producing bountiful harvests. Market baskets overflow with summer squash, plump as a baby’s thigh. Fragrant bunches of cilantro and dill perfume the mornings, and the sound of blueberries, cascading into buckets, is music to the ear.

But while some crops have yet to peak, the Oregon Coast Music Association is now in post-harvest mode.

The 29th-annual Music Festival last month brought an abundance of fresh musical fare to our communities. Sadly, there were many who missed out on the feast, and North Bend resident Carmen Matthews would like to do something about that.

Matthews joined the OCMA board of directors six months ago. He is a young, enthusiastic local musician with a compulsion to serve his community. And, in combination with fellow “twenty-something” board members Kevin Baker and Lisa Prinz, he delivers the promise of more and younger audiences to an organization unwilling to lie fallow.

OCMA Board President Karen Costello remembers talking with Matthews during a get-together with friends and family.

Such a positive energy music lover would make a total community advocate, Costello said to herself. So she drove over to the North Bend Dutch Bros. coffee stand Matthews manages.

“We need more community people who haven’t been involved,” she told him. “Would you consider?”

“Rock on!” Matthews replied. “Sweet!”

“They really carried a lot of weight,” Costello said of the young board members. “We’re thrilled to have them. We need their fresh perspective.”

For his part, Matthews reports that there was no doubt in his mind that he wanted to be a part of the music festival.

“I’m really excited for next year — I want to make it big,” he says. “I’m way jazzed. The orchestra concerts are a whole other level of excitement. I want to pack that place.”

Filling Marshfield High School’s more than 1,100-seat auditorium for a pair of classical music concerts is an admittedly tough row to hoe, but Matthews is game.

“Advertizing,” he declares. “Banners. And non-local advertizing... Medford, Ashland, Eugene. People will absolutely travel to see an orchestra of this caliber.”

He describes the thrill and inspiration he felt when the festival’s 80 musicians came together. “They played in time and in tune and with three rehearsals only! They amazed me. They don’t come here for the pay, they enjoy the city and the sights and the people.”

He remembers watching his mother, Mary Bonasera Matthews, who created and produced dance shows for North Bend High School for 16 years until her death in 2005.

“I saw what she did,” he says. “And it took lots of heart and soul. Time, energy ... I want to be a part of what goes on in my community. You gotta. If you want a skatepark, you have to work for it. You must be active. If you want music, you gotta participate.”

For Matthews, the summer music festival brought him “40 brand new friends,” including master cellist Andres Diaz.

“The most moving musical experience I ever had was watching Andres Diaz. And, don’t laugh,” warns Matthews, “but I told all my friends that Andres Diaz is the Jimmi Hendrix of the cello. His facial expressions! His body language! Every note he played, he was digging for it. And the orchestra behind him? They were digging it out, too. It was like watching a commander, leading his group.

“You can’t turn your back on that orchestra, on that music,” he said. “It’s too moving. Like watching a giant wave coming in. It’s powerful!”

Matthews wants to play more music for local children, so they can hear every type of music: everything from reggae, jazz, folk or Celtic.

“And the orchestra music, classical, is definitely the pinnacle,” he says. “I’d like to bring music to the table year round, so the festival has a face locally. We need a year-long presence and people more willing to help out financially.”

Controlled and careful exposure, thoughtful musical selections and a financially fertile membership base. That’s the way to grow an audience.