GUELPH –
It may sound like an unlikely string of events, but the donation of two classic guitars at a Guelph high school music department has led to the sponsorship of a donkey.
“She had a pretty nice reaction to the guitars when we first saw her,” said Ruby Keegan, a student at Guelph Collegiate Vocational Institute.
“She started braying really hard in response to that,” added student Lenny Muth.
The two, along with student Lucy Gouthro, are in various classes taught by GCVI music teacher, Lane Osborne, who recently received two classic guitars: a Gibson Les Paul and a Fender Telecaster. They were valued at about $7,000 all together. Donor Bob Taylor simply wanted his guitars to have a good home.
“The excitement of her and her class, I thought this is where I want these guitars to go,” said Taylor.
His generosity inspired Osborne to pay it forward.
“As a teacher there is no lesson I could show students in a classroom,” said Osborne. “This is sort of an organic way of showing them what they should be once they leave high school.”
She chose to sponsor Ruby the donkey, at the Donkey Sanctuary of Canada in Puslinch after meeting Bob Taylor who donated the guitars for free. He and his wife, Judy, volunteer at the donkey sanctuary.
“Allowing the students to see that a gesture of goodwill returned with another gesture of goodwill is sort of what makes the world go round and makes it a better place,” said Osborne.
The sponsorship helps take care of not only Ruby, but the approximately 100 other donkeys and mules at the sanctuary. It goes towards everything from their feed to veterinary care.
“We have a lot of vulnerable donkeys. The ones that come to us, some of them are healthy but a lot of them need a lot of extra care,” said Lesley Bayne, the executive director of the sanctuary, “the need for donations is becoming more and more as we go through the pandemic.”
She said it will provide for donkeys like Ruby, who was brought in with her mom and siblings about eight years ago, “in very poor condition.”
Osborne’s students called it a lesson they won’t forget.
“It’s such a great example of just exactly what you can do and it’s a simple thing we’re doing,” said Keegan.
Gouthro added that “it doesn’t have to be a big thing. All the little things that someone can do can make a difference.”
“I think a lot of people have a lot more capacity to do good than they think,” said Muth.
While they yet to have concrete plans on how to continue the goodwill, they said it might start with giving Ruby some music lessons.
“I’m thinking about teaching her clarinet and bassoon, but she might take more to the cello, we’ll see,” joked Muth.
They hope Ruby will take to music, now that she’s become the music department’s mascot.
“Going forward, we’re hopefully going to have some t-shirts and sweatshirts with Ruby on them,” said Osborne.
Anyone who is interested in sponsoring a donkey can head online. It costs $10 monthly or $75 yearly.
