School woods class receives $1,000 grant

Tony Cosby's Woods II Class, which makes and builds guitars from start to finish, recently received a $1,000 grant from the Oregon Communication Foundation.

The monies will be used to fund scholarships for students who aren't able to afford the $200 needed to build a guitar. Additional tools will also be purchased so more students can work simultaneously on specific areas of their project.

This is the second consecutive year Sisters High School has been able to offer students the opportunity to build their own guitar. According to Cosby, a school in North Carolina is the only other school in the nation that offers guitar building as a course selection to students.

Jayson Bowerman, of Breedlove Guitar Company in Tumalo, was instrumental in helping Cosby launch the guitar making project.

Bowerman helped set up all the tooling necessary at the onset of the program and personally demonstrated the entire guitar making process from start to finish.

Cosby said, "Jayson is just amazing. He's one of the best guitar makers in the Northwest. He's the reason we've got this opportunity at SHS, and he still makes himself available daily via phone with questions that always come up during class.

"The class we're offering here for students is awesome," added Cosby. "It's a problem solving class. Things don't always go the way they're supposed to. Problems and situations always come up when you're building a guitar, and it requires collaboration between myself and the student. Many times from the problem we'll come up with a solution that actually makes the guitar more aesthetically pleasing and a better guitar."