EDMONTON -- Children use pencil crayons to imagine and create on paper, a local musician is using them to make music.
Bryan Rosychuk is also a retired teacher, and Goodwill has always held a special place in his heart.
Goodwill has a work program for Albertans with special needs, and over the years Rosychuk introduced many his special needs students to the program.
“I love music, and I wanted to do something to show my appreciation for Goodwill,” said Rosychuk.
Rosychuk made two guitars out of hundreds of pencil crayons that he found in the stores, and he molded them with epoxy. Then, using old guitar parts he also found at Goodwill, he fitted necks, pickups and strings.
“Put them all together, and amazingly enough you get a guitar that works, and it looks pretty groovy,” said Rosychuk.
The making of the guitars takes time, and Rosychuk says it turns out finding slightly used pencil crayons at Goodwill isn’t as easy as you’d think.
Rosychuk says red and blue are the hardest colours to find, because they’re popular with kids, and white is the easiest.
“If you’re colour on white paper, you don’t really use a lot of white… so I ended up with a lot of whites.”
Rosychuk is a self-proclaimed expert on pencil crayons now, and even has favourite brands for building his guitars, saying the exact diameter of the pencil crayon makes a difference.
“You have to maintain the width carefully to be able to do the detail work on them.”
Rosychuk said it took months of collecting crayons in order to have enough to build two guitars, complete with the Goodwill logo on the body of the guitar.
The gift of the guitar, but more importantly the years of helping his disabled students, is an inspiration says Goodwill Alberta President and CEO Dale Monaghan.
“As a former leader in the school system he saw the potential in many people that parts of society do not see the same potential,” said Monaghan.
Monaghan says he heard about Rosychuk’s project from the store manager.
“To tell you the truth, I didn’t know if I misunderstood or didn’t believe what he was creating… 1,400 crayons, all put together in the colours and the logo of Goodwill,” said Monaghan.
“It’s the labour of love and the intensity of his time that he’s put into this that means to world to me personally.”
The guitar is going to stay in the Goodwill Edmonton SouthPark store, but Monaghan says the guitar might go on a little tour before being permanently displayed.
In the meantime, Rosychuk is currently working on guitars four and five, with one being a Canadian flag.
“This is so exciting for me to do, it gives me another reason to get up in the morning,” says Rosychuk.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's David Ewasuk
