Wolfgang Mozart wrote an opera, “The Magic Flute,” and the story is the typical one about a “handsome prince” who was saved by the music of the Magic Flute.
Damians Ladder’s story is about a beautiful silver flute, donated to us by Holly Christiansen and her husband, Richard Rebman of Felton, to benefit our garage sale held this last October. This lovely flute was new and never played.
The Board of Directors of Damians Ladder decided that, rather than sell the flute, we should donate it to the Gault and Monarch elementary schools’ music department. By gifting the flute in this way, many more children will have the advantage of learning to play the flute, and most important, we thought of the children whose parents could not afford the cost of the instrument itself, nor the expense of a private teacher.
Moshe Vilozny, the schools’ director of music, and I had several conversations about our offering, and his statement as follows was our reasoning behind choosing the Santa Cruz schools: “The main thing you will receive is the satisfaction of helping our diverse low-income students.”
The Damians Ladder Mission is to help low-income seniors and those people with disabilities in the Scotts Valley and San Lorenzo Valley area by making small home repairs so they may remain in their homes safely and comfortably.
From the beginning of this program, we are receiving donations in so many different forms other than monetary, as exemplified by the gift of this flute.
Helping any child, in any situation, has been an honor for Damians Ladder, and we are grateful for Holly and Richard to have been able to pass this flute into the care of Gault and Monarch elementary schools and their music director, and the students in the years to come.
Colly Gruczelak is the President of Damians Ladder. For more information about Damians Ladder, visit damiansladder.org.
