Girls Rock

One of my goals this year is to straighten up my office closet. A while back when we decluttered, we took it in steps. The books, the music CDs, clothes, etc. The office closet what overwhelming and I kept saying I'd do it next. I lied. When I opened it up yesterday, a small piece of equipment fell from a top shelf onto the big toe of my right foot. The pain was exquisite. That one random reminder from Mother Nature upped the priority of cleaning out that closet. I started today. 

I threw a garbage can full of junk away, but there were several items that I needed to repurpose somehow. Then I remembered a project with which my friend Fred is involved. 

He works with the Girls Rock group initiative in Birmingham. The group works with young girls to teach them the basics of music. Many of the girls come from homes where buying a guitar would not be an option. At the end of the project each year, the girls do a concert.

Fred, who is handing refurbishing musical equipment was a natural as a volunteer for the group. He knows sound, performance, equipment, lights, and cables. 

I had an old electric guitar, an effects pedal, music stands, and some other equipment that was sitting in my closet. When I called to ask if they could use it, he said, "Of course." 

There is always a market for this kind of equipment. I could have put it on Ebay or on Facebook and sold it, but that didn't feel right.

I loaded up the stuff and took it over there this afternoon. Thinking about putting the equipment in the hands of a young girl and giving her a chance to find joy playing music seemed like the right thing to do.

The picture of me was taken just after Jilda and I married in 1974. The guitar is a Gibson Les Paul. I wish I still owned that guitar.