Rulon International, a company in St. Augustine, Florida that manufactures wood ceilings and acoustical wood walls, is giving back with a unique project. They turn scrap wood into toy guitars and donate them to sick kids around the world.
Wayne Robison, Rulon’s president and CEO, came up with the idea to turn scraps into 10,000 guitars to give away and three years later, they’re more than halfway there. They've sent the guitars to 50 different children's hospitals and orphanages. “We feel a responsibility to give back to those less fortunate, and commit a portion of our profits toward a variety of children’s orphanages, youth camps and charities worldwide," according to the companies site the company and Robison adds, “I don’t think we’ll ever stop.”
One of the biggest hurdles when they started was painting the guitars. But that problem went away when they heard that the kids like to paint and decorate them in their own unique ways, so they send them out raw, which means they can make them a lot more and kids get the fun of decorating them!