Six String Heroes

OK, this is the final blog for me. Next up is the Don Van Dyke show. I appreciate Jess at the Local Q asking me to write the blog for a couple months and for all the kind words from those on Facebook that read my ramblings.

Those of you that know me, know that I’m originally from Quincy, but moved to St. Louis about 10 years ago. I worked too many hours and traveled way too much the first five years here and decided I needed to make some changes in my life. I decided that I really wanted to spend more time with my family and that I wanted to focus more on helping people, rather than making money. Easy to say but much harder to do. I was able to start teaching online college classes, which meant working from home — great start — but was still looking for a way to help people.

A couple of years ago, I saw a story in a guitar magazine about a national organization called Guitars for Vets, which taught military veterans how to play guitar to help them with PTSD, depression, memory issues, and other problems. A chaplain named JR Harris at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis had recently started a chapter, so I decided that was my calling. Combining my love of guitar with helping veterans — there couldn’t possibly be a better mix for me. I met with JR, Kevin Sullivan, and army veteran, Derek Milles, who were all teaching in the program and it felt like home the first night.

Fast forward six months and we were doing some great things for Veterans in St. Louis, however, Guitars For Vets had some growing pains and we were in high growth mode in St. Louis, so we decided to go it alone. By this time, JR had been transferred to Las Vegas and army veteran Mike Petty had started to help. We decided by going it alone, we could raise money locally and keep the funds in St. Louis to grow and run our own program. Six String Heroes at Jefferson Barracks was born on Feb. 22, 2011.

I’m proud to say that almost immediately after starting the program, the great folks in Quincy were supporting our efforts. In addition to various donations directly to me on my visits back to Quincy, Second String Music and the Vancil Performing Arts Center sold about 150 shirts and took in about 15 guitars in the last eight months.

I wrote a blog post about the reality of music therapy a few weeks ago. In it, I said that I see that it’s real every week when I give guitar lessons to veterans. We’ve had comments such as, “this is the best part of my week, I never thought I ‘d look forward to Monday nights (our lesson nights),” ”I’m glad the program is there, I’m a lot more focused on my actual life now.” I’ve been stopped in my tracks and fought back tears when I tried to explain to a student that he’s putting his fingers in the wrong place for a chord and then noticed that the top half of one of his fingers is missing from a mortar blast, so he has adjusted to using his remaining fingers to fret the chord. That same student has helped me change my entire outlook on life in a positive way, so I definitely get as much as I give.

Stoner

I’m proud to announce that in conjunction with Second String Music’s one year anniversary (the day after ours), we have implemented a Quincy chapter of Six String Heroes. Second String Music and the Vancil Performing Arts Center will be working together to provide lessons to qualified veterans and Six String Heroes will be providing the guitars and accessories for the program.

The basics of the program are:

1) The program is designed to help military veterans, who as a result of their military service are suffering from PTSD, depression, battle fatigue, memory issues, social anxiety, a physical injury, or similar problem.

2) The first step to enter the program is to fill out an application available from Second String Music or by e-mailing Six String Heroes at sshstl@gmail.com.

3) If all criteria are met, the veteran schedules their lessons with Second String Music and receives 6 free guitar lessons. A loaner student guitar is provided by Six String Heroes for the lessons. After the 6 lessons, the veteran is awarded their own new guitar, a gig bag (case), and accessories and is encouraged to continue on with their lessons or join a guitar group in order to continue learning.

All guitars and funding to Six String Heroes is provided through personal donations. A Quincy benefit is being planned for June 30, 2012, at Turner Hall. Please make plans to attend and contact us at sshstl@gmail.com if you would like to help in any way.

May your seas be still and your sky be blue,

Steve Stoner