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From: "Lisa"
 here's the article from the Chicago Tribune:

PRINE RETURNS HOME TO BOOST CENTER FOR ARTS

By Ted Gregory 
Tribune Staff Writer 
February 27, 2000 

Last summer, musician John Prine was performing in Chicago when he saw a newspaper clipping about his beleaguered hometown, west suburban Maywood, a place the Illinois Department of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse has tagged as a high-risk area, where teen pregnancies have doubled in the past decade, where unemployment is triple the state average.

The newspaper report mentioned the ongoing financial struggles of the Maywood Fine Arts Association, a relatively new non-profit organization that had purchased a stately if dilapidated bank and begun offering dance, tumbling, music and other fine-arts training to impoverished children.

Prine, the Grammy-nominated folk singer who penned such hits as "Angel From Montgomery," "Lake Marie" and "Illegal Smile," made a mental note to figure out a way to help.

When he returned to his adopted home of Nashville a few days later, the solution was waiting for him in the stack of mail at his record company. It was a letter asking almost timidly if Prine would consider performing a benefit concert for the Maywood Fine Arts Association.

The Saturday concert was a sellout. The association will receive about $40,000, allowing it to replace the roof and guarantee next year's classes. More important, the association will continue to be a refuge for Elizabeth and about 2,000 other children who flock to 5th Avenue and Lake Street for the fine arts.

Nearly every afternoon, Elizabeth, 7, arrives by herself at the fine-arts center. She stays past 9 p.m., then returns to her home a block away.

"Elizabeth just shows up, participates and then hangs out until we turn off the lights," Lois Baumann, program director of the association, said one recent afternoon when the girl entered the center.

Elizabeth understands a place that emphasizes the discipline required for graceful expression. Prine understands, too, and now he can help build momentum.

"Usually in these cases, you can only raise so much money," said Prine, 53, a 1964 graduate of Proviso East High School and former Maywood mail carrier. "It's everything else that happens as a result. It gives them a little drive and more spirit to carry on with what they're doing."

Baumann said the performance will allow her "to just breathe a sigh of relief."

"I hope that this will create another following, that people will be aware of what we're doing and be aware of our needs, and people will be proud of what we're doing and be proud to be a part of it," she said.

For about 30 years, she and her husband, Ernie, have been virtually the only constant providers of fine-arts instruction in Maywood. She has operated Stairway of the Stars, a dance studio. His business was Mr. Ernie's Flip, Flop 'n Fly Tumbling Studio. Both businesses struggled for decades, primarily because the Baumanns were reluctant to turn away youngsters unable to pay.

They are a spirited couple who raised their six children in Maywood, even as many families fled. Lois, 53, sprouts a ponytail at the right rear of her bristled yellow buzz cut. A gold loop and a dot of a jewel hang from the left earlobe of Ernie, 60.

About four years ago, their lives had come to "a crazy peak," Lois Baumann recalled. She had to deal with drug dealers and prostitutes in and around her building. Funds were so tight that she was unable to bring in artists to teach and unable to pay her daughter, Heidi, a dance instructor.

At the same time, Ernie Baumann's studio a few doors down the street was crumbling. Apartments upstairs were occupied by vagrants. The ceiling of Baumann's first-floor business was leaking and collapsing.

That's when the Baumanns and a group of parents, friends and supporters came up with the idea of the Maywood Fine Arts Association, a non-profit organization that could provide arts training for low tuition to underprivileged kids.

The group obtained certification as a non-profit and bought the deteriorating bank with a $1,000 down payment. The Baumanns emptied their $12,000 life savings to tear out walls and restore the place.

The center opened in September 1996 and has struggled to stay solvent. The children keep coming, but more than 40 percent of them don't pay tuition. Large charitable organizations and private corporations have been reluctant to cut checks because the association has been forced to operate hand to mouth.

Last summer, Lois sent out a call for help that reached Joe Ponsetto, former basketball standout at Proviso East and DePaul University, now chief of special prosecutions for the Illinois attorney general's office. Ponsetto thought a Prine concert could accomplish three aims: help the Maywood Fine Arts Association, help Maywood itself and give Proviso East a boost.

Ponsetto's idea was to persuade Prine to perform in the school auditorium and then honor Prine with an award at the show. He sent a letter to Prine. Four days later, the singer agreed.

"A lot of adults who grew up in Maywood have great memories of the community," Ponsetto said. "We're just trying to make certain that the kids growing up there now have the same kind of memories."

Prine, who earned a Grammy nomination for his latest album, "In Spite of Ourselves," said for years he had been looking for an opportunity to play at his alma mater. After scheduling the performance, he started compiling a set list.

"I'm going to see how many songs I can remember that came from my Maywood days," said Prine, who left Maywood in the early 1970s and has lived in Nashville since 1980. "I'm sure there are a couple of girls back there who broke my heart."

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The Maywood Fine Arts Association can be reached at 708-865-0301