For Ray Washington Jr., being on Morgan State University’s drumline was a life-changing experience. So when he got a job as a music teacher at Maple Elementary School in Cambridge, Maryland — the school he attended as a child — he knew just what the students needed. Washington went out and raised money to fund instruments and uniforms, and created a rarity in the music world: a marching band and drumline at an elementary school.

Now, the 45 fourth- and fifth-grade students in the drumline are a national must-see, performing  on Good Morning America, at local events, and at Morgan State University’s homecoming.

“It’s given kids that wouldn’t have a focus, a focus,” Principal Patricia Prosser tells the Baltimore Sun. “I don’t think it would have been possible without the success of the drumline.”

Read the source article at The 74