Eleven-year-old J has been literally counting the hours to his guitar class today. After playing an acoustic guitar borrowed from Father Acker's wife, Alice, since he started lessons in July, J received wonderful news from Fatehr Acker following the Free Teen Guitar Class' (FTGC) performance at the ecumenical Thanksgiving service in Alpine last Wednesday: someone had donated several new electric guitars as "loaners" to the FTGC. And J gets first pick! He's chosen the wine-red Silvertone Rockit 21 (pictured above) and this afternoon he'll be able to play it for the first time and also bring it home for practicing. I've rarely seen J's face light up the way it did when Father Acker gave him the good news. He has never complained about being the only guitar student using an acoustic, but he's thrilled to be able to make the transition to electric, especially with such a cool electric guitar that is brand-new!
Father Acker's Free Teen Guitar Class is such a blessing for the students of Alpine and the backcountry. He's a patient and encouraging teacher, and he doesn't mind me and B completing B's schoolwork in a corner of the big room in the Alpine Community Center while he teaches the class. Currently the Beginning Class that J is part of has two to three students, and there are students also in the Intermediate and Advanced levels. Six students played at the Thanksgiving service.
J can also be seen playing at the Thanksgiving service on the FTGC website by clicking right here. He is so excited about playing this brand-new electric guitar. So many thanks to the donor(s) who made this "loaner" possible, and many, many thanks to Father Acker for his willingness to spend his Wednesday afternoons patient teaching squirrely boys (girls are welcome, too, but right now most of the students are boys). J is our musical kid who has taken piano lessons for over two years and truly enjoys playing both the piano and the guitar. He's simply thrilled to "trade up" his loaner acoustic for a cool red electric!
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