Established in 1988 with strong support from Lilly Endowment, the Indiana Youth Institute is a non-profit, Indianapolis based organization with a mission to "promote the healthy development of children and youth by serving the institutions and people of Indiana who work on their behalf."

Since 1998, Bill Stanczykiewicz has served as IYI President and CEO. This former Indianapolis city cabinet member under Mayor Stephen Goldsmith, and policy advisor for Indiana US Senator Dan Coats, has worked diligently to put IYI into the forefront of youth development and child advocacy across the state of Indiana.

Each year, IYI awards $5,000 to ten extraordinary, results-based programs that can be replicated in other Indiana communities. This year the GC Music Center's Acorn Music Scholarship program was one of these ten award winners chosen from the more than 200 applicants.

On Monday, Nov. 17, Mr. Stanczykiewicz, will participate in a celebration at 4 p.m. in Sauder Concert Hall which will include a few Community School of the Arts students and college officials. At this event he will deliver an oversized check of $5000 to us for this work.

The Acorn Music Scholarship program has provided more than 450 awards totaling more than $85,000 to approximately 200 children from 130 area families since its sliding-scale system was implemented in 2003.