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August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | Was talking to the eBay seller of a new 2005 Coll 2005 Coll We got a little off topic since he had been a Corpsman with the Marines and was injured during the 9/11 rescue. Sean and his wife have a small music store, an Ovation dealer. Following is a cut and paste of an article written before his first load a couple of months ago. He's planning to take another load down in a couple of months. He has the luthier skills to repair many of the instruments. A lot of the donations have come from his own pocket. Nice story.
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From the Berkshire Record, Great Barrington, MA, 12/9-12/15/05
Heartstrings to replace instruments lost to Katrina
By Ethan Kelley
Local musician takes time to help colleagues in need
GREAT BARRINGTON — A South County musician who volunteered in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort is preparing to hit the road again, this time to deliver musical instruments to people who lost their favorite forms of expression in the chaos of the storm. Sean Barry — a guitarist, harmonica player and one of the owners of The Music Store in Great Barrington — has established a program called Heartstrings, an initiative, he says, to put music “back in the hands and hearts of those silenced by hurricane loss.” A September 11 volunteer at the World Trade Center who got his start aiding people in crisis as a 1968 Vietnam Corpsman, Barry received a call from the Oklahoma Baptist Relief Team while Katrina’s floodwaters were still rising, asking him to head south.
Barry spent the next three weeks helping to run a warehouse in Baton Rouge, where water, food, clothing and personal care items were organized for distribution to communities as far as New Orleans. While Barry listened, displaced people shared their stories. “I met one old guy, who was 87, and talking with him I learned he’d lost his home, his granddaughter, his gin mill, his bank, his VFW, everything - including his 1906 Gibson guitar, which he’d played every day of his life since he was 11,” says Barry. “He said, ‘Just give me a jug of water, a bag of food and guitar, and you won’t see me no more.’”
Later on, Barry — who carries a harmonica everywhere - met a boy named Terrence, who was so taken with the shiny, blues-shrilling instrument that Barry gave it to him on the spot. Today, back in Great Barrington, Barry is a man on a mission. He plans to drive a truck laden with instruments out of town at 6 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 18, bound for a host of communities between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. He wants it to be full.
To explain the difference music can make, Barry looks to the words of retired opera singer Phyllis Curtin, who says, “For many people, losing a companion musical instrument is like losing part of one’s self. The instrument has spoken for its owner’s joy, grieving, comfort, thinking, expression and sheer fun. Donating a musical instrument to a hurricane victim can restore the livelihood, the spirit, the soul’s companion.” Barry has already gathered a grand piano, two spinets, some guitars, flutes, clarinets, trumpets and more to start getting the truck load ready. Some things will be difficult to replace on the first trip, such as the $54,000 organ lost at the Baptist church in Slidell, but Barry hopes this first step will strum Heartstrings into lasting action.
“If we give one guitar to one block and one person plays it and sings, it will fill the hearts of so many people,” he says. The eventual goal of Heartstrings is to provide about 75,000 instruments to people in need. Anyone who can donate an instrument by Dec. 17 is asked to drop it off at The Music Store or at Barry’s house at 9 Seekonk Road.
For more information call 528-2460 or 225-963-1133. All donations will be distributed by the Florida Blvd. Baptist Church of Baton Rouge.
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A small music store competing against the big box stores web page |
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April 2004
Posts: 13303
Location: Latitude 39.56819, Longitude -105.080066 | There are good people out there. Restores faith in the human race. Nice story! |
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February 2002
Posts: 1817
Location: Minden, Nebraska | What we give comes back to us. Guitar Center profits fell nearly 10% last quarter, according to a weekend Wall Street Journal. Darn Shame, eh... |
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December 2003
Posts: 13996
Location: Upper Left USA | Thank you for sharing that one Tony! Sounds like you made a great connection there as well. |
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December 2004
Posts: 2150
Location: Orlando, FL | Great story! It's good there are folks like that out there. |
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September 2003
Posts: 782
Location: Waurika OK | Great story! I tried to call them, but they are closed on Monday. I will try again tomorrow. This sounds like it is legit, Tony, have you checked this out anymore?
Seriously thinking about participating.
I will post if I get anymore info. |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | Sure looks legit. Sean sent me a lot of info...what I posted came from a newspaper article (pdf) that I had to convert. Will send you a PM that I believe is his private (? cell). |
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August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | Noel, that didn't work...returned "user is over quota" |
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January 2002
Posts: 14127
Location: 6 String Ranch | I've been in the store. The guy is real. |
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August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | Just talked to Sean Barry at his direct cell: 413-528-6487 |
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Joined:
September 2003
Posts: 782
Location: Waurika OK | Tony,
Sorry about the pm not going through, I dumped a bunch of email out of my in box, so maybe now it will accept mail.
Sean called me, so I found out what I needed to know. He is going to send me more info.
thanks |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 4619
Location: SoCal | Just talked with Sean...he has a 1777LX and a ME 12-str that he will post for sale, once we have the website transfer completed (problems w/new member sign-up). Funds will go to his efforts. |
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Kudos to an Ovation Dealer - gift of music
