When a high school music teacher put out the call for donated instruments, he had no idea how it would be received. What happened next was truly a gift. A gift of music, now being played on six strings, thanks to some truly generous people.

Every guitar in Mike Ciranni’s music class has a story. The fact that every guitar player in class even has a guitar is a story unto itself.

“I’ve been trying to get a guitar class for a while now,” said Ciranni, a music teacher at Newark High School in Wayne County. 

In January, the administration notified Ciranni that he would be teaching a guitar class during the upcoming semester. It was great news, but there was one problem.

“I was really excited about it,” he said. “But I didn't have enough guitars.”

Ciranni put out a call in the local newspaper, looking for donations. Old guitars, which maybe people were no longer playing.

“And once it hit the paper, we just started getting donations and donations,” he said. “We're so grateful.  It’s been actually amazing.”

Two dozen donated guitars, including one in Tristan Harris’s hands, a custom-made guitar Pam Packard gave away.

“When I met my husband, he played the guitar for me the first night, and I was hooked,” said Packard, of Newark. “He wanted that back, and I said no.”

A total of two dozen old guitars telling two dozen different stories. 

“Every time I went past it, I had to pick it up,” said Packard, of how she practiced and improved. “That was my role. I had to pick it up and play something. And that’s how I learned.”

Packard used to play in a bluegrass and country band, but that was a long time ago. Her instruments sat idle, collecting dust. So she donated them.

“I'm not using them anymore,” she said. “I’m just happy they've got to a place where they’ll be played.”

Ciranni’s guitar class is so popular, kids will even stop by and play during lunch.

“I definitely think we're very lucky to be in the community that we are in,” said student Jonah Pettine. “Especially to have the amount of guitars to support a guitar class, is just really cool.”

For Packard, knowing her guitar is making music again is touching. She sat alongside Harris as he strummed some notes.

“I don’t know. I think I’m gonna cry,” she said.

The kind of story Ciranni says — is worth a million notes.

“It's kind of heartfelt just to know that these instruments were part of these people's lives for such a long time,” he said. “That’s been wonderful.”