Through The Looking Glass

From its humble beginnings in the fall of 2006 as a grass roots not for profit that was pioneered by the founders, Eric Lea and Michelle Diaz, to a well known and respected program that has now produced over 350 successful participants, Guitars not Guns Canada has grown and evolved over the years. So let's look back at where they've been, where things are at now and what's ahead.

When Eric and Michelle were first trying to launch this initiative, the biggest obstacles were trying to obtain funding for a charity that did not yet have charitable status and obtain affordably priced children's guitars and carrying cases. But thanks to their efforts and the generosity of those that believed in what the program was trying to do, the first classes launched from school locations in the GTA in the fall of 2006. Also, thanks to Frank Allegro of Allegro Music, we were able to secure our instruments at a very reasonable price and continue to do so to this day.

While charitable status was successfully obtained in January 2009, Eric was not able to see the results of his efforts as he was to pass away suddenly in the fall of 2008. But Michelle, with the help of the other volunteers, was able to continue the program moving forward and a more steady flow of financial support started happening in the years that followed.

One of the big changes that happened was the program moved out of the schools and into community centres and Boys and Girls Clubs, bringing us even closer to the communities we serviced. Another big change was that we began launching yearly spring and fall fundraising campaigns. We also now have succeeded in applying for and receiving grants from several different major companies over the years.

Another major change we made was the introduction of the Mentoring program which allowed past graduates of the program to come back and help with the next group of students. And now we have taken that even further with the more recent launch of informal jam sessions for those graduating students who want to come back to practice and play more songs with the instructor the next season.

The next big changes we made were bringing us into the digital age when we launched our online donation platforms available on canadahelps.org and Benevity charitable giving sites, making new sources of funding available to us on a nationwide basis.

As we look ahead to the upcoming 2024 Fall programs to begin, we enter our third year of exclusive partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada at both our Toronto and West Scarborough locations. We have our instructors in place and while we await the results of our grant applications, our Spring fundraising campaign is already well underway with the Fall campaign set to launch in late September.

And if you would like to help become a part of the great things that are happening at Guitars not Guns Canada by donating either your time or financial support, please visit our website at Guitars Not Guns Canada or check us out on Instagram or YouTube or visit our profile on Linkedin. And stay tuned for our next issue when we have a 5 question sit down with GNG Canada's founder and President, Michelle Diaz.