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By:  Stephen R. Elville – President and Principal Attorney of Elville and Associates, P.C. and Founder of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts, Inc.   William and Jasmine are middle school-age children who live in central Maryland.  They are brother and sister and each has a strong interest in music and the arts.  Their school had a music program in years past but now that program has been largely defunded and is barely functional - it has all but stopped.  There are available teachers willing to teach, and these teachers are so dedicated that they are willing to stay after school.  Why?  Because there are hundreds of children at the same school who, like William and Jasmine, want to participate in music and learn to play instruments.  Yet there are few instruments available to the children at the school, and most of those instruments are either broken, are in a state of disrepair, or are otherwise unplayable.   At the same time, William and Jasmine, like nearly all these children, have no instrument of their own and no ability to obtain music lessons, with their parents unable to afford the $2,000-plus per-year expenditure necessary for instrument rental and lessons.  Without access to music, music experience, and music-related cultural events, William and Jasmine, like thousands of children in Maryland, are languishing culturally and in their personal development.  This is a Maryland (and American) tragedy that has unfolded slowly over the past 25 years and must be stopped.  The Elville Center for The Creative Arts Is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is proactively addressing this problem head-on.  The mission of the Elville Center for the Creative Arts is to provide children like William and Jasmine the opportunity to learn music theory and application, experience cultural events related to the musical and creative arts, and to use music and the promotion of music-related activities to transcend social and economic divisions. The Elville Center partners with local and regional businesses and school music programs to give the gift of music to children of all ages who want to participate in music but don’t have the means to do so on their own.   You can do something to help children and restore music to schools and to the lives of children across Maryland by supporting the Elville Center for The Creative Arts.  The Elville Center needs monetary donations, pledges, volunteers to assist with fundraising and event planning, music instruments that can be refurbished, and more.  If you have a strong desire to help children and an interest in music, the Elville Center needs your support.  Help the Elville Center help children like WIlliam and Jasmine.  For more information or to donate, visit www.elvillecenter.org, or please contact Stephen Elville or Jeffrey Stauffer at 443-393-7696, or via email at steve@elvilleassociates.com or jeff@elvillecenter.org.