Middlefield – Musicians who are interested in helping the many people in the local community affected by the recession can now benefit from their helping hand. Roadhouse Music is teaming up with the Independent Music Store Owners Group and SIT strings for their fourth annual Food for Strings food drive. The event is taking place on November 10th from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Musicians need to bring at least three non-perishable food items, and the experienced staff will install a brand new set of SIT strings, tune and polish the instrument for no charge. All food collected will be donated to the First United Methodist Church of Middlefield’s food bank, which distributes food through the Geauga Hunger Task Force. Donations will be accepted even if the customer is not interested in a restring.
To ensure each customer receives a quality restring, the store, which normally staffs three guitar techs and one desk clerk, will double it’s staff for the day. A few regular customers volunteer to strip strings off the guitars, polish and clean, while the guitar techs will restring and tune. The repair shop, which normally houses three guitar benches, will have six for the day. Instruments will be fitted with SIT strings, a local company out of Akron, Ohio which makes the high quality strings right here. Any instrument requiring more than just re-stringing can be assessed and left for repair at a discounted rate for the donations.
Musicians who donate food in exchange for the restring will be a part of a nationwide effort to support food banks local to their store. The Independent Music Store Owners Group has organized more than 30 stores to participate in the 2012 drive. In 2011, iMSO member stores changed more than 1,573 sets of strings and collected more then 11,772 pounds of food. To find out which stores across the nation are participating, or to learn more about the event, check out the website at www.foodforstrings.org.
