Cooler Dave from the San Antonio Parrot Head Club, Kathy Seeger from Seguin PHC, Thom Shepherd, Fisher House director Doug Dickson, Coley McCabe Shepherd, and Derrick Dowden from Canyon Lake PHC at the San Antonio Fisher House
How It Started
The idea for donating guitars happened when Thom Shepherd & Coley McCabe visited the Fisher House in Honolulu in 2017.
Fisher House Foundation builds comfort homes where military & veteran families can stay free of charge, while a loved one is in the hospital. These homes are located at military and VA medical centers around the world. There are 94 locations in the US and Germany.
On their visit, the commander of the local base showed up and asked Thom to perform his hit song “Riding with Private Malone.” Thom was without a guitar that day as he and Coley were on their way to the beach.
Coley and Thom looked at each other and said “Every Fisher House should have a guitar.”
The Red Guitars
Thom plays a red Taylor 615ce Concert Jumbo. So the couple decided to go with red Taylor 214ce guitars for their donations. They have a small plaque on them with the name of the person who donated it and a link to the RedGuitars.org website
Thom says “In 2005 I was going through chemo-therapy. My friend and cowriter of “I Am A Woman” Mary Sue Englund knew that I wanted a Taylor guitar like hers, so she reached out to a bunch of friends of mine, including Pam Tillis. They all contributed to buy me my guitar. I picked it out on the Taylor website and when I saw the red color, I had to have it.”
So Mary Sue’s act of kindness is now being “paid forward” to anyone staying at a Fisher House that has one of our Red Guitars.
The First Guitars
At the Lone Star Luau Music Festival in 2022, the first 9 guitars were presented onstage by Thom & Coley and Mike Fuller of Fuller Guitars in Houston.
These guitars found their way to Fisher Houses all over Texas.
Progress So Far
In 2023 the Red Guitar Campaign officially became a 501c3 organization.
As of March 2024, 48 guitars have been sponsored, and 30 of them have been delivered to Fisher Houses in Arizona, Texas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, and South Carolina. Thom said “It’s very rewarding getting to visit each Fisher House and meet the people who work there and sometimes some of their guests. They really appreciate the gift of a Red Guitar”
The goal is to have a Red Guitar in every Fisher House. There are 92 locations, but some locations have multiple houses. “Originally, we thought we needed 7 guitars for Texas,” says Thom, “But then we found out the Houston VA location has 3 houses, one of the bases in San Antonio has 4 houses, so 7 guitars quickly turned into 14”
Patrick Dellinger, an Army Veteran of 30+ years, performed for other Fisher House guests at the Los Angeles Fisher House while visiting his father who is currently in the ICU.
Minneapolis Fisher House 9/1/23
Guitar donated by Steve & Barb Elliot.
(L-R) Steve Elliott, Aerial & Randy Dobnak, Thom & Coley, Barb Elliott