Dear members - this may not be new but I hope some will read it anyway. I sold a guitar recently in ebay and discovered the buyer had a military base address. I could not take money from anyone serving our country so I shipped the guitar and refunded the buyer 100% I found out they were a combat medic in training and are scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan in August. They did not ask for anything but were very appreciative at my show of support.
I got a mini-brainstorm and asked the buyer if they were willing to distribute other instruments if I could get more donated. They were happy to help and so I posted a new topic at 3 different guitar forums online where I am a member. The postings received mixed results because some suspected I was a fraud - apparently some frauds had done the same thing before me. Also I learned that an official Guitars4Troops organization already existed, which I had not been aware of. The best news is that 3 other guitar enthusiasts trusted me enough that they dontated a guitar. I shipped 5 more of my own guitars plus a mini-amp, a set of bongo drums and some guitar strings, straps and other supplies. So from the serendipitous exchange between me and one combat medic in training, 9 guitars were donated!
My contact is in a unique postiion where she has a direct interface with both active and wounded soldiers. One of my guitars was given to a solder that had lost both legs in Afghanistan recently. I'm so glad I donated that guitar and the others.
I have continued my efforts to help get more instruments and suppies to the troops. I created a video and posted it in youtube. I hope you will watch it and if you can get more exposure for the video please feel free to copy the link and forward to anyone etc. Thank you.
