Breedlove is known for high quality handcrafted guitars and their ability to make you feel like family. The company gifts passion and love with each guitar. When teaming up with the Blue Star Connection, a program on a mission to give the gift of music to sick children and adults and also within their music therapy departments, Breedlove’s goal is to instill hope within these individuals young and old.
Blue Star Connection was founded in 2005 after the Grand County Blues Society was performing for the Shining Stars Foundation, a local group of children fighting cancer; John Catt spoke with a 17-year-old boy who was fighting cancer. John asked the boy if he had a guitar to which he replied, “Yes, a beat-up, old acoustic.” John asked if he would play an electric and the boy responded, “Anything to brighten my day.” Less than a week later someone donated a baby blue guitar, the same color as the boy’s eyes. Ever since then the foundation has taken off and has help children and adults from various hospitals to find hope and joy through music.
After Breedlove caught wind of this great opportunity to help they jumped on it. “If we can inspire, gift love, passion, and hope then our meaning as a company has been fulfilled”, head hippie Tom Bedell adds about the partnership. 30 guitars have been given to the foundation this year and two of which are left. A Chris Evert Hospital therapist, wrote Breedlove an update, which states:
“Those 30 guitars have been incredible to have and everyone loves them. We gave some to the therapist to have for personal use; they are perfect to carry from room to room. We gave a bunch to kids learning the guitar. I just gave one to a young mother who lost her infant and decided guitar would be a good therapy, she fell in love with it and she can tune it perfectly. I don’t know how we can get more but we should never be out of this guitar. The built in tuner is a must and it’s the best on board tuner I have found. The guitar is just the best for our use. Thank all of you for making these gifts possible. Please thank everyone else that played a part.”
The letter that belongs with the photo below:
“My name is Dawn, and I am a Music Therapy Intern at Chris Evert Children’s Hospital. My internship will soon be ending, but I wanted to take a moment to thank you and your organization for all you do. Thanks to your generosity many of the children the Music Therapy Team works with have been able to benefit from the support you provide. While not all of the patients we see will receive a guitar, it is not rare to hear the sound of harmonicas being played in the units. Below is a story about a patient I have worked with for much of my internship that benefited greatly from the instruments you provide.
I recently had the opportunity to work with a teenage patient named Machiah who is admitted frequently for sickle cell pain or crisis. Recently he has been admitted to the hospital more often. Machiah responds very well to music therapy, and tends to use music as a coping mechanism to decrease his pain. During one of our sessions this patient showed interest in playing the guitar. After this session I began incorporating teaching him to play chords to help distract from the pain he was feeling. Thanks to Blue Star Connection’s donation of guitars to the Music Therapy Team at Chris Evert Children’s Hospital we were able to gift this patient with a wonderful Breedlove guitar. When he received the guitar his eyes lit up and he had the biggest smile on his face. Machiah loves his new guitar and can’t wait to jam with his friends.
Thank you again for all of your generous support. As I conclude my internship I'll be sure to take your contact information along with me. I look forward to speaking with you again in the future.”
Music has a wonderful way to get people to muddle through their hardships. Some use it to cope and others use it to escape. Breedlove is prideful of their guitars for the warm harmony and melodies that can be played, which is an instant feel good notion on the mind and body.
