Manitoba Chamber of Commerce
Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/97063
In t e r l a k e Guitar Heroes Students pull celebrity strings for benefit auction by David Schmeichel W hen homegrown rock legend Randy Bachman was a boy, he risked getting expelled from school if his guitar playing pulled focus from his studies. Fast forward a few decades, and kids are being encouraged not only to play guitars, but also to build them — and students at Ecole Selkirk Junior High are putting their craftsmanship to work in service of a worthy cause. Bachman is among the impressive roster of rockers who've signed custom-made electric guitars built by Selkirk's BOSS (Building on Student Success) program. The instruments are then sold at the school's Built by Suns … Signed by Stars Gala & Guitar Auction to raise funds for the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Since its inception three years ago, the initiative has drawn the signed support of everyone from Pearl Jam and Deep Purple to the Beach Boys, and has vastly exceeded the expectations of Selkirk principal Wayne Davies, who developed the program with teachers Kris Hancock, Scott Sampson and Todd Black. "We thought maybe we would make three guitars, and make $1,000 in total by getting them signed and auctioned off," Davies says. Above: Closeup of guitar signed by Roger Waters. Gene Simmons donated an axe-shaped bass guitar from his own collection, and Bachman and bandmate Fred Turner donated a model from Bachman's Guess Who days. "The next thing I knew we had 55 signed guitars and we ended up making $32,579 off the auction. It was kind of just way, way over the top of what we ever thought we could do." In addition to supporting the museum, the program has raised $35,000 by donating guitars to 50 other local charities. And Davies is confident his kids will have raised more than $100,000 by the time next year's auction has wrapped. The built-in cool factor ensures the program is popular with students, whose handiwork has been endorsed by the likes of Burton Cummings, William Shatner, Bruce Willis, Roger Waters and Slash. This year, KISS frontman The decision to support the museum was inspired by a $100,000 donation to the same cause by Canrock legends Rush. The partnership is particularly 40 MBiz November 2012