Heroes’ Voices began its music therapy programming with veterans at the Menlo Park VA. Those weekly workshops brought together generations of veterans who joined their voices in song. The participants were in treatment programs for PTSD, drug and alcohol abuse and other challenges that veterans faced while in service to their country.
One of the early participants, a veteran of the Afghanistan war, voiced his desire to learn to play the guitar. Anthony was a homeless vet in the residential PTSD treatment program, so his resources were very limited. I approached a local guitar store, Gryphon Stringed Instruments, about Heroes’ Voices purchasing a guitar for Anthony. When I asked one of the owners, Richard Johnston, if we could get a discount for a veteran, he said, “We can do better than that! We will donate a guitar to Anthony.” Of course, Anthony was thrilled!
A short time later, I was contacted by one of the resident guitar teachers from Gryphon Strings, Larry Chung. Larry said that he wanted to offer free guitar lessons to veterans. Gryphon Strings immediately began donating guitars to the cause, and Heroes’ Voices’ “Guitar Corps” was born.
For the next ten years Heroes’ Voices offered free guitars and lessons to veterans. Lessons began at the Menlo Park VA, where programming included a clinical study conducted by Dr. Ben Graham on the positive effects of guitar lessons on veterans with PTSD. We began to offer lessons at the Veteran’s Building in San Francisco and the San Bruno VA Clinic with a new guitar teacher, Paul Young. “Guitar Corps” programming extended to Humbolt State University.
When the Covid pandemic hit, we had to move our lessons online to Zoom classes as well as on a VA video platform. While we were sorry to postpone our in-person lessons, veterans began to log onto our lessons from all over the country. So, we began to donate guitars to veterans all over the country.
We have been able to maintain this important outreach to veterans through the extraordinary generosity of Gryphon Stringed Instruments. Over the last ten years, Gryphon has donated well over 300 guitars to veterans. Thank you, Gryphon Stringed Instruments, for your fantastic commitment to bringing the healing power of music into the lives of veterans.
Please consider joining Gryphon Strings in supporting our “Guitar Corps” programming with a donation to Heroes’ Voices. https://heroesvoices.org/donate-now/
Thank you,
Rick Harrell
Executive Director