Hurricane Sandy Giveaway Guitar

[TonyinNYC]

I have been doing a lot of work helping people dig out from hurricane Sandy in Staten Island and New Jersey. I was born on Staten Island and lived there until I got married in 2005, at which point I moved to Brooklyn, NY. During the time I was living with my mother, and even afterwards, she owned, and still owns, a summer home at the New Jersey shore. I spent every weekend and most summers down there and I have many friends in Brick, NJ as well as other parts of the Jersey shore that were very badly damaged by Sandy. Almost all of my friends and family live on Staten Island and they were all impacted to varying degrees by the storm. Some only lost power for a few hours, some for days. Others had extensive flooding. My mother's house in NJ was flooded and everything on the first floor and in the crawl space under the house was destroyed. Some items, like pictures of my grandparents and great grandparents are lost forever. Other items, like my mom's and my wife's wedding dresses were damaged but can be cleaned(I hope my wife's dress can be cleaned since it was my idea to keep it at my mom's. We are talking serious doghouse time if it is ruined!).
For anyone who has never been flooded, here are a few things I learned:

Home owners insurance will not cover flood damage. You need separate flood insurance for that.
Homeowners insurance will not cover the damages to the contents of your home even if you have flood insurance to cover major structural damage.
Flood insurance here does not cover the contents of your home. It will only cover structural damage, i.e. walls, doors, floors, etc.
FEMA will also not help you pay for lost items. They also only help with structural damage. You also need flood insurance to be considered for FEMA help.

Anyway, somewhere in all of this, a guitarist must have lost their prized possession. As guitar lovers, players and builders, I think we can all appreciate how awful it would be to lose your prized guitar knowing you can not afford to replace it.
Since I live in a badly affected area, and I have been doing all I can to help people dig out from this mess, I wanted to do more. After a little thought, I decided that I would offer to build a guitar for a worthy individual who lost their prized guitar in the flooding.
I am donating any wood from my wood stash that the winner wants to choose. My Brazilian rosewood, ziricote, Carpathian spruce, Lutz, whatever they want. But I need some help. That's where you guys come in. I would like to keep my costs down as much as possible. Partly because I am helping my mother to replace lost furniture, and partly because I am not rich.
I have the following items covered:

Back and sides
soundboard
bracing
nut and saddle
bridge
fret wire
Rosette
headplate veneer


I need help with the following items:

linings
binding
neck and tail blocks
tuners
fret board
NECK!! I can't make necks. I have bought all but one of the necks I have used so far. I am going to contact Martin to see if they will sell me a neck for cheap, but if anyone knows anybody who can help in this regard, please put me in touch with them.

That's all I can think of now, but if anyone sees something missing from my list, let me know. If you wish to donate any items, I am more than happy to accept! I will be putting together a note to deliver with the guitar so the future owner knows everyone involved, unless they wish to remain anonymous.
I have updated the home page of my website to reflect the giveaway, so check it out, http://www.CostaGuitars.com

Thanks in advance!

Tony

[Ken Hundley]

I think it is a great idea, Tony, and will have to try to figure out what I can contribute. Might be easiest to add to the budget more than anything else. I can confirm what you have said about flood insurance. Not that we here in Chicago have been through anything like what has happened on the east coast, but the Chicago area has had a rash of violent storms and microburst/tornadoes during the fall over the last few years. We flooded several times, but one particularly bad storm flooded near 1000 people, and downed near 3,000 trees in a small community. We were one of 7 families that checked the correct box on the flood insurance section of our application, and were one of 7 families that were compensated. What we got didn't nearly cover what we ended up having to do to the house, but that was not the fault of the insurance company. If you are at all at risk for flooding, make sure you look at the option for insurance.

[TonyinNYC]

Thanks Ken. I am considering posting about this on Kickstarter to get some cash for the winner as well.

[TonyinNYC]

I'm famous. Sort of. A local paper covered my story. Despite getting most of the facts wrong, I am still pleased because it resulted in several new entries int the contest. See below:
http://www.silive.com/eastshore/index.s ... le_of.html

Pretty cool. I started getting phone calls about the giveaway and I could not understand why or how people got my number. I assumed a friend passed it along or something. Wrong. The paper out my number in the story.

[Ray Ussery]

I'm in Tony, for me Ken is right, best to help is that way...I'll sure do what I can! Good for U! I've cleaned up after a couple of tornado's and it isn't pretty...I can only imagine....sort of like that Grizzly Bear...that's a big ocean and it goes where it wants when it wants...if you're in the way Lord help ya!
Sorry for you families losses too...pic and all....those things are important to people..I've been very lucky to have been able to keep many...but I feel for them...
I'll say a few prayers for ya on the dress...hate to see a grown man cry and try to work on guitars with broken parts! :>)

Ray