Mrs. Lydia Laidlow, teacher of Paint Branch Elementary school had a dream that the children who were “challenged” could do well in school. So in the summer of 2006 she approached the Ottley Music School about teaching her afterschool children steel drums. Since there was no county assistance in this pilot program, Mr.Adjahoe, and Mrs. Ottley decided to join Mrs. Laidlow in this venture, to go and pick up the students, and charging them a fraction of the cost, they brought them to Ottley Music School once per week, in the summer, and throughout the school year for steel drum classes taught by the college senior, Anwar Ottley. The following summer they played not only in Ottley Music School recitals, but also in concerts at their school and at the Bladensburg Waterfront Concert with Ottley Music School under the auspicies of Maryland National Capitol Park and Planning Commission, OMS rented a truck to transport the instruments to the various sites.

The principal and parents were so impressed by what the students had accomplished, that they with the parents with the teacher and others supporting them raised funds to purchase their own steel drums. The following year, as Mr. Ottley had to go to Michigan to work on his Master’s, Mrs. Laidlow hired another teacher and continued the lessons, teaching them music of the classics, music of the Caribbean, and also as per the choice of their teacher, Mrs. Laidlow, sacred and gospel music. Their band is called “Tropical Breezes”, and their uniforms are tropical shirts for casual and tuxedos for formal events. They are the first steel band in the Prince George’s Public School System, and were taught as a pilot project by the Ottley Music School.  More recently, Tropical Breezes performed under the auspices of the Prince George’s Board of Education, for the National Educators National Convention in Washington, D. C. and were so well received that they were given invitations to perform in several of the United States, in the Caribbean and in Europe.   The students moved up to Principal’s list, and went on to high school and college as A students.  Samples of their performances as Ottley Music School students can be found on youtube.