Arts Craft Arts

Luthiers for a Cause Initiative Raising Funds for Nonprofit Ukulele Kids Club

Photo by Corrie Woods

By Emma Castleberry

Western NC guitar builder Jay Lichty and three other luthiers have teamed up with WNC’s Dream Guitars for the 2022 Luthiers for a Cause (LFAC) Initiative. This project originally launched in 2017 when six ukulele builders came together to raise money and awareness for the nonprofit The Ukulele Kids Club, an international charity that has helped thousands of children around the world to overcome the stress and anxiety of serious physical and mental health conditions by providing access to music. “It is amazing what one little ukulele can do to help elevate the mood, optimism and healing of a child,” says Lichty. “And not only the child benefits. When I think of the desperation a parent must have when their child is sick, scared and miserable, and then the relief that happens when a music therapist walks into the room and hands the child a ukulele. ‘Here, this is yours to keep and take home. Let me show you how to play it.’ The smile that was so lost comes flying back to that child and the parent. We are giving the gift of music for life.”

Jay Lichty, artist. Photo by Carrie Woods

This year, four luthiers will each build a one-of-a-kind guitar that will be auctioned on the Dream Guitars website. The guitars are all made from wood from the same trees donated by Steve Grimes of Grimes Guitars, who is one of the four luthiers participating in the project along with Peter Robson and Ben Wilborn. The back, sides and neck of the guitars are made from well-seasoned curly maple and the top is seasoned sitka spruce. The four guitars are all different sizes. “The hope is that this ‘family’ of guitars will appeal to a collector who may want the whole set,” says Lichty. The guitars will also be available for sale individually.

Dream Guitars’ role will be to sell the four completed guitars to their worldwide client base by recording video of the instruments and marketing them on their website, through direct outreach and social media. “We will do this free of charge as our contribution to the effort,” says Paul Heumiller, owner of Dream Guitars, who lost his father to cancer at 10 years old. “It was finding the guitar at the same time that helped me get through that rough period and become the person I am today. These ukuleles, in the hands of children who need hope and joy, will do wonders. I truly believe that.”

The guitars will be listed on DreamGuitars.com in late fall. To learn more, visit LuthiersforaCause.org. Donations can be made directly to The Ukulele Club at TheUKC.org/donations.

Leave a Comment