A decade of planning by a Kansas City area celebrity is finally paying off for an area Catholic elementary school.</p><p>Kathy Quinn, reporter for WDAF Fox 4 News, has helped get the ball rolling to form an after-school mariachi program for Our Lady of Guadalupe School on the West Side of Kansas City.</p><p>And that includes a benefit concert Thursday featuring singer Linda Ronstadt at the Midland Theatre. </p><p>Quinn discovered the school through the community service efforts of her grandmother, Guadalupe Garcia, who helped create the Guadalupe Center. Quinn&rsquo;s aunt also lived next door to the school.</p><p>Even though her family did not attend school there, she knew she needed to make a difference.</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always wanted to help out the school,&rdquo; Quinn said. &ldquo;The church closed down, and I didn&rsquo;t want the school to close down as well.</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t want to see that school and culture falter. I want it to flourish. This could be an anchor that grounds the students to the school and their culture.&rdquo;</p><p>Quinn spoke with Our Lady of Guadalupe School Principal Connie Bowman about her idea to form a mariachi program 10 years ago. She wanted the program to begin as an after-school program then integrate itself into the school&rsquo;s curriculum. Her ultimate goal is for the program to expand throughout the Kansas City area for all interested youth.</p><p>&ldquo;At that time, she and I talked about student involvement in after-school things,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;Mariachi fit, because we have a large Hispanic population. It was something we talked about for a few years then put on the back burner. Last spring, things started moving.&rdquo;</p><p>Bowman is grateful to Quinn for her dedication. The school has only 97 students, all of whom are just as thankful for Quinn&rsquo;s desire to help.</p><p> &ldquo;We&rsquo;re pretty speechless around here,&rdquo; Bowman said. &ldquo;She doesn&rsquo;t have kids here, but she is good of heart. We call her our guardian angel. To think that she spends our free time with us is amazing. She&rsquo;s really been unbelievable.&rdquo;</p><p>The mariachi program could begin as early as January. As things started moving forward, Quinn reached out to Marcos Mora of the South Omaha Arts Institute. Mora has helped form similar groups in Omaha and in other areas of the United States. </p><p>Initially, the school looks to have 15 to 20 students in the mariachi group.</p><p>&ldquo;The structure is similar to the one at the SOAI in that it&rsquo;s an after-school program,&rdquo; Mora said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s pretty much the same form: audition then learn the music.</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s hands-on. There are a number of different items they&rsquo;ll have an opportunity to learn. They&rsquo;ll learn how to play the instruments, exercises required like scales. From that experience, they&rsquo;ll learn songs, even singing exercises like breathing, posture. We&rsquo;re also looking for kids who stand out and could take the lead singing or with solos. We&rsquo;ll also discuss what does it take to be a musician.&rdquo;</p><p>But there is one stipulation for the program. Participants must keep their grades up in order to stay in the program, and good grades are not the only benefit.</p><p>&ldquo;Participants will find they&rsquo;re not as shy and more outgoing in other areas,&rdquo; Mora said. &ldquo;I think it definitely builds other skills that build on school. I think culturally it benefits them. They learn about their background, and for those who are not Hispanic, they learn diversity. The kids don&rsquo;t realize it now, but the diversity will be more beneficial in the future as America becomes more diverse.&rdquo;