Chapter Update
Special Note: The parents or legal guardians of
students Sara Henry, Jake Miller, Lino Alibani, and Gage Ferrier have
signed a release form allowing us to release these student last names. Generally, we
do not release the last names of students.
On Saturday, March 25th, we had our second
GnG graduation in
My husband Tim
and I arrived at
We did not know how many people were
coming because most people did not RSVP our invitation. (Why
don't people answer RSVP's?)
Ha! Ha! So ... we did not know what to expect. We supposed that we
would have at least 65 guests based on our students, their families and
friends, and our teachers with their families and friends. We had tried
hard to also get the word our to community members. We decided to plan on
about 80 people, and we set up tables and chairs for
that many. We also had enough refreshments for about 100 people.
Graduation was scheduled to begin at
The man of the hour was Bob Kent
from Galt. Bob is going to be one of our Galt GnG instructors. He arrived
to announce that he was recording the ceremony. When I listened to what
various people said during the ceremony, I thanked Bob with my whole heart.
He was capturing those amazing statements for us. Cheri Newcomb
was video tape recording also. Several people were taking photographs.
Our first graduation was lovely in our
classroom with 8 students and about 30 guests. This graduation was as warm
and almost as intimate. This graduation opened its arms to many others from our
communities. There was an electric feeling of wonder in the air, a
feeling you get when you know you are at the right place at the exact right
time, when you know you are experiencing something, not just witnessing
it. We were all sharing something incredible together, and everyone knew
it. You can't often (if ever) plan such moments. They just happen.
Our first speaker was Lodi
Councilman Larry Hansen. He wanted to be last, but I made him go
first. It was a heady experience to tell a former
After the
ceremony several students asked me one thing or another about
Mr. Hansen. (One question involved height, but all other questions
were profound. Mr. Hansen is very tall.) One student said we must invite him to
our class so we all can talk with him and "really" meet
him. Mr. Hansen, thank you for sharing with us the story of your humble
childhood and the hardships you endured as a youth. Thank you for
talking directly to our students, for being there specifically for them and for
telling them that they were why you were
there. You are a man who has enjoyed an incredible and
successful adult life in spite of many childhood challenges. You urged our
students to use their own hardships and own challenges to strengthen themselves
and to build their own character. As one of our teenage students said
later, "That dude is one of us."
Next on the program our "First
Session" teachers spoke about their students. Frank
Wright was our lead instructor for our “First Level” session.
He is a remarkable man; he is in his early 80's, and he plays in a
rock band. He also makes/builds guitars and is a mean
harmonica player. Frank shared anecdotes from class and
explained the various things we taught our beginning students. He
explained how we tell students that they are not stupid, but their left
hand can seem very "stupid" in the beginning, and with
practice their hand gets smarter and smarter. Next our awesome assistant
teachers Marilyn Hughes, Henry Faulkner and Joey
Bailey shared their great stories about our students. Marilyn
explained how one student, Gage (age 9) from
Next we had one of our most beloved GnG
supporters speak. Michael Pearl and his wife Royelle
Diamond (their real names) have generously donated funds to our
chapter twice, and we had three of their grandchildren graduating. (Sara Henry
is their granddaughter.) Michael has attended our beginning lessons and
has more or less "taken" the guitar lessons with his grandchildren.
GnG is pretty strict about student age requirements. Our students are supposed
to be 8-18 years old. Try to tell that to Grandpa Michael. What a
blessing he has been to our chapter. He is "Grandpa" to all of
our students. He gave a wonderful talk to our kids, and we thank him and
Royelle so much for their on-going financial support and encouragement.
Our "First Level" students
received their Certificates of
Achievement and then performed the song Hang
Down Your Head Tom Dooley nervously and beautifully. Our
entire staff was beaming with pride.
Next was my personal favorite part of the
program, I announced my "
Gage
has displayed respect for his classmates and his instructors. He has been diligent in his studies, and he
has shown kindness to a classmate he noticed was struggling with her
instrument. He unselfishly gave her his
assigned guitar because it was more appropriate for her size. He took her
guitar instead, even though it would be more difficult for him to play. He
accepted this challenge without complaint. This unselfish generosity greatly
impressed his instructors.
We
are proud of this young student and we believe he is a great example of
excellence in young people today. It was
a pleasure to teach him, and we look forward to having him continue lessons
with Guitars not Guns.
After the ceremony about half of the
audience told me that Gage was so polite and handsome that they wanted to
take him home. His mother Michele Gray says she has
tried very hard to be a good mother. (Gage is proof that she has done a
terrific job.)
At this point the "Second Level"
lead teacher Clancy Ferrill spoke about his students. Clancy is a
professional musician and has taught guitar lessons for 27 years. I don't
know how to describe him. I just know if I were a kid and I had him
as my guitar instructor I would think I had died and gone to
heaven. I have watched this devoted teacher in action. I have seen
him stretch our more advanced students further than any have dared to
hope they could stretch. I have seen him teach them several
different things at the same time. Music is Clancy's river, and
he teaches our students how to swim in any current and how to splash in the
sun. Lino Alibani, Sara Henry, and Jake
Miller are excellent students. They each are committed
to practice, and they each are very serious about their guitar
studies. Under Clancy's stewardship they have raced forward in their
skills. Student Matt (age 12 from
Our next three guests were
the "B-I-G S-U-R-P-R-I-Z-E-S" of
the program. Lodi's Mayor Pro Tempore Bob Johnson, Stockton City
Council Member Leslie Baranco Martin, and Mayor Darryl Clare of Galt were
invited to present our Guitars not Guns
Star Student Community Service Awards to our volunteer Jr.
assistant teachers.
Bob Johnson
presented the award to Lodi's Star daughter, Sara Henry. Leslie Baranco
Martin presented the award to Stockton's Star son, Lino Alibani. Mayor
Darryl Clare presented the award to Galt's Star son, Jake Miller.
These very busy city officials were
extremely generous with their time and their praise to our students and
volunteer teachers. We were honored to have them with us.
Bob Johnson addressed Sara with a
knowledge about her that clearly surprised her. He knew so much about her,
he spoke of her many achievements and of her
growing strengths. What she could not know at the time was that she
was important enough to Mr. Johnson for him to take time to learn about
her. He was clearly proud of Sara, and he was celebrating with
us her accomplishments.
When I spoke with Leslie
Baranco Martin on the phone in early March about coming and surprising
Lino, she was delighted. She said that she loves surprises. I
should have taken that as a clue. She had a few
surprises for me when she took the microphone. She informed us all that she had already heard about Guitars not Guns
and had even researched about GnG before I called her!
She then shared all sorts of wonderful things about her music interests, etc. When
she turned her attention to Lino, she shared with the audience support and
praise for the young man he is, for the talented musician he is proving to be,
and she complimented his cool hat. (It is a very cool hat.)
Mayor Darryl Clare had not yet met our
students, but they all had heard his name in class for a long time. We had regularly been sharing
information with the students about how excited Mayor Clare is about the GnG
program and how he has helped us secure news articles, contacts, and
facilities for future sessions in Galt, community support, etc. It
is very hard to establish a new program in a community. You simply cannot
succeed without help from the community, and you do need support from city
leaders. Mayor Clare has really kicked doors open for GnG and we just
love him. He was inspiring, and he told Jake Miller that Jake is
now a youth ambassador for Galt. Jake was too stunned to
smile. His smile is so beautiful, but he just doesn't smile when he is
blown away.
These three Star Students received the Guitars not Guns Star Community Service Award that in part
states:
This award is presented to young
guitarists who soar higher, fly farther, and enrich their community with
music. By volunteering to teach children
how to play guitar, you are honored for being a generous, creative artist in your
community.
Following these award presentations Jake,
Lino, Sara, Matt, and Joey performed with lead teacher Clancy Ferrill
"Blues in A" with many people in the audience tapping their feet and
clapping along with the beat. They played incredibly. I knew the
guys would play great; so I mainly watched Sara. She was a little
worried that she wouldn't do as well as the guys. She did great.
Clancy was ten feet tall by the time they finished.
Our graduation party began and we were so
excited to learn that several people in the audience had interest in joining
our efforts. I cannot share full information right now because details
have not been worked out yet. BUT--
We have two new GnG instructor applicants;
we have a school teacher in
Our next
I apologize if I have forgotten to thank
someone or if I did not mention something I should have. I am so proud of
our students and so grateful to our growing body of generous teachers. I
think this chapter will continue to grow and develop in our communities.
Ideally, we wish to offer class sessions to kids in their own communities, in
their own neighbors. It looks like that is indeed becoming a realistic
and achievable goal.
Thank you all for helping to make this
happen in
Tim and I are sad to report that our camera
had some problems during graduation. Everyone who took photographs,
please call me. We wish to secure copies of your photographs for our
website, for the GnG website, and for our teachers and students.
Please watch our website for updated
information and new photographs which will be added monthly. We will eventually have photographs of each
of our students displayed. Go to www.astarrynightproductions.com and click on our "Starry
Night Kids4Kids Guitars not Guns" link.
Warm Regards,
D.B. Pacini, President