The Pisgah Banjo Company is excited to announce another chance to win a unique custom banjo! Raffle tickets are $20 each and all proceeds will benefit the Arnold Shultz Fund, a grant program dedicated to people of color pursuing traditional old-time and bluegrass music. Again this year, a portion of the funds raised will be designated for a Black Banjo Reclamation Project gourd banjo building workshop. The goal is to sell 2,000 tickets and raise $40,000. Click here to purchase raffle tickets from February 1 – March 31, 2024.
The prize banjo was made from the 2022 U.S. Capitol Christmas tree. “The Pisgah District of the U.S. Forest Service was tasked to supply the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree for 2022,” said Patrick David Sawyer, owner and senior luthier at the Pisgah Banjo Company. “In an effort to make useful items from this tree, Pisgah Banjos was asked to build some banjos out of this precious wood. Three banjos were made: one going to the forest service, one to The Southern Highlands Preserve red spruce nonprofit, and the third going to the 2024 Pisgah Banjo Raffle benefiting the Arnold Shultz fund and the Black Banjo Reclamation Project. The first $10,000 raised will go to the BBRP and the remaining to the Arnold Shultz general fund.”
Pisgah Banjos has raised a total of $89,000 over the past three years for the IBMA Foundation. The raffle will go live February 1, 2024, and will run through the end of March.
Instrument specs include: red spruce neck and rim, persimmon fretboard, Dobson tone ring, 12” rim, slotted peghead, S-scoop, SRT scale, aged brass hardware, and a hawktail tailpiece. The banjo will be delivered in an Access State One case, and the retail value of the banjo with the case is $2,495.
Pisgah Banjos chose to support the Arnold Shultz Fund as a way to help reappropriate the history of the banjo, Sawyer noted. They hope this encourages the banjo community and beyond to discover the early history of the banjo, which was created by the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean. The month of February was chosen to coincide with Black History Month. Tickets are $20 each and there is an unlimited quantity. The more tickets you purchase, the better your chance to win. Tickets will be placed in a bucket and a name drawn in March via Facebook live.
More info: https://www.pisgahbanjos.com/product/arnoldshultzraffle2024/
RETURN to the February 2024 issue of The Cornerstone.
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