Many thanks to Roland's contributions to the Canadian Music Therapy Trust Fund.  This past holiday season, Roland's customers made the season a little brighter.   For every purchase of BOSS pedals helped to light Roland's tree and when the tree was fully lit, Roland made a donation to CMTTF.   This was a wonderful campaign helping Canadians make their own music and give back to others at the same time.  

Thanks to Roland Canada and to Sally and Susan who made this happen!

Paul Andrew Stobbs Fund 

The Paul Andrew Stobbs Fund was initiated by Paul’s mother Patricia, in loving memory of her son, who passed away in February 1999 at the age of 37. Paul was a young man with a developmental disability, who faced challenges, life, and all those he knew with an infectious enthusiasm. He demonstrated a particular sensitivity for persons with disabilities, especially in his job at the Hugh MacMillan Centre. His family and friends will always remember his laughter, his warm embrace, and his great love of music. Paul’s family felt that supporting the Friends of Music would be a perfect way in which to honour his memory.  Read more about this wonderful program here.  

Music industry partners like Bryan Taylor from Keystone Music contribute greatly to the CMTTF.  Bryan most recently promoted Don Felder from the Eagles on the West Coast where they teamed up to raise  dollars from each ticket sale.

Light-hearted, suntanned and as cool as you'd expect any former member of the Eagles to be, legendary guitarist Don Felder moved musical mountains yesterday at the Association for the Rehabilitation of the Brain Injured (ARBI) centre on Spruce Dr. S.W.  Surrounded by a crowd of neurologically impaired people living with brain injuries of varying degrees, the world-famous Felder opened with a joke about meeting Jose Cuervo in a bar on an Eagles tour in the 1970s, before strumming and singing a few smash hits such as Tequila Sunrise, Take It Easy, Desperado and the song he penned himself in 1977, Hotel California.  Felder's visit, while heartwarming, marked a huge step forward in the realm of musical therapy for brain-injury patients. 

For individuals such as Matt Schovanek -- a Canadian peacekeeper who suffered severe head trauma while serving in Bosnia in 1994 -- hearing someone playing songs they remember from long before their injuries has the ability to get even the most wheelchair bound among them tapping their feet.  For former trombone player Curtis Junor, with a smile as big as his heart, meeting Felder was "fantastic," describing music as not just a way to connect to the past, but "hopefully a way to connect to the future."

To read more, click here.

To view a video of Don Felder in action at Association for the Rehabilitation of the Brain Injured, click here.

Thanks to Bryan, who made this happen!