With free guitars, New Milford man gives the gift of music
NEW MILFORD — Vinny Rodriguez knows music can be powerful when you’re lonely and overwhelmed — feelings many have had during this pandemic.
As an 8-year-old, Rodriguez moved with his family from the Bronx to Yonkers. It wasn’t an easy transition, but music sustained him.
“I had no friends and the guitar was my first friend,” he said,choking up as he talked. “I know what it’s like to be that 8-year-old kid, 9-year-old kid, who looks forward to having their own guitar.”
Since August, Rodriguez, 58, has been giving away these guitars to children with the help of donations from friends and neighbors. What started out as a “Pay it Forward” campaign at his job turned into a monthslong project.
After Base Technologies president Mike Boyle gave each employee $500 to donate as they wished, Rodriguez knew exactly what he wanted to do. Some of his colleagues gave
to animal shelters, or left big tips at a local Dunkin’ Donuts. Rodriguez bought three guitars. He posted a blurb in Facebook groups about the giveaway, and soon, people began donating money to finance more purchases.
For nearly a half-year, people have been sending the New Milford man checks, handing him cash, and wiring money through apps, which Rodriguez said he carefully tracks.
“It just kind of snowballed,” he said. “Not only are people donating, but they’re donating two, three, sometimes even four times because they want this to keep going.”
Rodriguez has two older children, both of whom have taken virtual classes during the pandemic, and it worried about the amount of time his kids — and others — are spending staring at screens. Their lives are all online. So while they’re stuck inside, Rodriguez thought to provide a fun alternative.
“At night, they’re staring at their phones, there’s no social interaction, there’s no music,” he said. “It’s something you can do other than technology.”
To date, he’s received roughly $8,500 in donations and just gave away his 40th guitar. The latest one went to a local teacher who wanted a guitar for her classroom. Rodriguez has enough funds for at least 10 more.
The children come with their parents or guardians to pick up the guitar. Sometimes its a surprise, and other times they’re anxiously awaiting the instrument. Even socially distanced with masks on, Rodriguez can tell they’re excited.
“I know they’re smiling but I can’t see it.” He said he looks beyond the mask and sees the joy in their eyes.
Rodriguez was so inspired by what he saw — and didn’t see — on the kids’ faces that he wrote lyrics to an old tune he used to play to get his son to sleep. He called the song “Smiles I Can’t See” and posted it on YouTube.
“Finally, 25 years later, I put
lyrics to it,” he said.
The song starts: “I see all these faceless people, living in a sad, sad world.” It then goes on to talk about “wasted smiles” behind “masks of cloth” that won’t be seen, and how he’s trying to do something to “save the children.”
The title of the song is a hashtag on the videos Rodriguez uploads with each guitar he gives away. He’ll record himself playing a song on the guitar and then adds #smilesicantsee. Each song, each guitar, and each story that goes with it is special to him. Parents send thank you texts or Facebook messages to let him know the impact the guitar made on their child.
Sometimes as he drops off the guitars, families give Rodriguez gifts or cards — hand-drawn thank you notes covered in drawings of guitars, accompanied by any assortment of sparkly stickers, stars, or music notes. They make Rodriguez emotional.
Even through his own health difficulties, Rodriguez plans deliveries of guitars to kids. The 58-year-old father and husband suffered a heart attack at the beginning of February, spending three days at the hospital, but is already back at work and continuing to raise funds for the guitars.
In a Facebook post dated just before his heart attack, Rodriguez wrote: “Music heals. From the last song in your head when you go to sleep at night to the first song that goes off on your alarm clock when you hit the snooze button in the morning.” The music isn’t just entertainment for the kids, but a way of coping and moving forward.
Rodriguez said he has a dream of going to an auditorium some day decades from now where he’ll see the hundreds of kids he’s given guitars to playing a concert together.
“I’ll keep doing it forever,” he said. “As long as I’m alive.”