EMMIE BOESE
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Sandy Green started her nonprofit Guitarists for Good eight years ago. The Hutchinson native didn't learn how to play the guitar until she was an adult.
Green said her family moved away including her granddaughter, which left her with feelings of sadness. She said the day she got her first guitar, she played it for nine hours straight.
"I thought I'd buy a guitar and see if that would get me to a place of even mindedness," Green said. "I did. I got the guitar and I played that over the weekend."
The nonprofit gives away guitars to Oxford Houses in Hutchinson and Wichita, New Beginnings Inc. and other children's homes and shelters. Guitarists for Good has also given away keyboards and a trumpet. Green said she and another Hutchinson native Tara Esguerra, placed 35 instruments in every single Oxford House in Wichita last year.
"I would say, our aim is to nurture peace of mind through gifts of music," Green said. "We know that people are at their own intersection. In homeless shelters. In places that serve folks who are homeless and we hope that when we make an instrument available in one of these situations, they can check out that guitar. They can calm the chaos in their minds because they remember that they can play the guitar."
Green's idea to start Guitarists for Good stems from an introduction to Wayne's guitar meetup community. She told the other members of the group "we should start something."
"I had a campfire in my backyard and a little fundraiser on my own to raise enough money for a guitar," Green said. "I raised $500 and got five guitars and needed to kind of take action. From that group who came that night, by the next week we were already brainstorming and that's kind of how Guitarists for Good was born."
Green said one of her favorite memories from Guitarists for Good is about a child who discovered a donated guitar from the nonprofit at a youth shelter.
"She found the instruments and she strummed the guitar all night," Green said. "She did not know how to play it. She was just a little girl. She crawled in bed with the instrument and the worker said I just didn't want to take it away from her because it was so soothing."
Green currently resides in North Carolina and runs Guitarists for Good from her home.
The organization has donated to 19 different states and 160 organizations. In total, 466 instruments and cases have been donated with a value of up to $73,276.
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