Los Primos 50/50 for June 03 Draw - Supporting “Instruments for Cuba”

Submitted byJeff Goodspeed onThu, 6 May 2021 - 2:06 pm

This month’s on-line 50/50 Raffle at Rafflebox.ca will be in support of our efforts to get instruments to Cuba for donation to music schools and cultural centres. 

Since 1998 when Jeff and Amara Goodspeed first went to Cuba with 26 donated instruments for the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory, Los Primos has delivered over 800 instruments to organizations and musicians all over Cuba. Amadeo donation

Usually we take the instruments on a plane when travelling to Cuba. Sometimes with groups of students so we can take quite a few. In 2016 we took 70 people with 70 instruments for donation. We were celebrating 70 years of Canada/Cuba relations. Here in this picture from 2000 you can see the record number of instruments that Jeff took by himself. Thanks to Canada 3000 and Air Cubana. This was pre 911 of course.airport donation

In 1999 we were able to sneak a few instruments on board the JD Mitchel cargo ship that was going from Halifax to Havana. Just in time for the Jazz Festival in Havana...we took a piano, a bunch of amps and assorted instruments and met the ship in Cuba. Thanks to ICAP and Secunda Marine for their help with this donation. jd mitchel

Now we have a large donation ready for repair and shipping. 20 computers donated by NSCC, and over 100 instruments of all kinds will try to find their way onto a container ship next fall. Covid 19 is slowing our progress but we will get the instruments there as soon as life starts to return to normal. In the mean time we need to get these instruments refurbished so that they are all in top playing condition and that is what we will do with the money from this month’s 50/50 raffle. Here are a few of the 100+ instruments that are ready to make their way to the Long and McQuade repair shop. Instrument pile

So help us get these instruments to Cuba by visiting our online raffle at 

RAFFLEBOX.CA