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Monday, December 24, 2007
“Pay it forward with trumpets”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He used to have a toy trumpet and a sax.
When he wore them out, he’d try to make instruments out of whatever he could.
Yes, you might say Christopher McDavit, 9, loves music. Air Supply, Boz Scaggs, Chicago. The Georgia Tech marching band.
“We follow the marching band around like groupies, even though I went to Georgia State, not Tech,” said Kirk McDavit, Christopher’s dad.
Now, “C.J.” can make his own tunes. He has a shiny new trumpet, thanks to a Duluth man with a tender heart.
Last Tuesday, I wrote about Jerry Robb, a salesman who wanted to give away a $500 trumpet. The recipient had to be a boy or girl who liked music, wanted to play, but couldn’t afford a brass instrument.
An elderly neighbor had asked Robb to buy the instrument. She’d wanted it as a gift for her adult son. He’d wanted to play trumpet when he was a kid, but never did. The son didn’t want the instrument, though, so Robb bought it. He thought it would be a nice Christmas present.
But this trumpet story doesn’t end with C.J.
Robb and I swap e-mails back and forth. We’ve dined together a few times. He gives me bags of tomatoes from his garden. So the fact that he wanted to give a trumpet away didn’t surprise me. His generosity is genuine.
“He’s modest about it, but he could have taken this back to the store and gotten full credit for it,” said McDavit. “To think a human being would do this for another human being.”
The McDavits picked up the instrument Sunday. Robb plans to give C.J. a couple of lessons - show him proper technique, how to read a few notes and do scales.
“I hope I can do better at that than I do at golf, or C.J.’s going to be in real trouble,” he said. “He looks like a ‘natural’ for trumpet. Plus, if he ever makes it to TV, he is very handsome.”
This trumpet story gets better. ’ After the initial column ran, I got a call from Terry Barker of Stone Mountain. He doesn’t play the trumpet, but can sound like one. He occasionally gives performances. Call him the “human trumpet.’ He uses a trumpet for a prop for his gigs. At least he used to. On Saturday, he gave the instrument to Robb to pass along to another kid.
Finally, there’s the co-worker who called Robb out of the blue. He’d read that first column, too. Now he plans to buy a trumpet for a needy child.
Robb’s been inspired by the generosity. I guess you could say others are paying it forward — infectious acts of kindness that renew our faith in human nature. And because that, he wants to make the trumpet giveaway a holiday tradition.
To help folk like the McDavits.
The family moved to Buford from DeKalb so C.J. could attend local schools. He’s a second-grader at Harmony Elementary. Kirk McDavit, a former criminal investigator with the IRS, has been out of work save for “a few day jobs and things.”
“There’s no way I could have bought him what he wanted for Christmas,” he told me. “I contacted Mr. Robb because this was an opportunity for me to do something for my son.”
C.J. sleeps with the trumpet. He wipes it down with the towel Robb gave him.
And even though he doesn’t know any notes, he’s making music.
If you’re interested in the trumpets, contact Jerry Robb at 678-283-9787 or e-mail jrobb3328@aol.com.
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail rbadie@ajc.com.
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