We concluded our extremely successful Cunningham Guitar Raffle on Friday November 14th. We’d like to congratulate Lee Marshall from Germantown MD for the winning ticket — and thank EVERYONE for their incredible support of our school!
Southwest Virginia luthier Jackson Cunningham crafted a phenomenal guitar for the raffle this year. The 2025 Cunningham Raffle Guitar had a lot to offer the player and the listener, and as in years past, the guitar has a heavy influence of regional timbers harvested and sourced from around the high country of Southwest Virginia.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene’s destruction in September 2024, salvage efforts around the region allowed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The wood used for the top of this guitar is old-growth red spruce from a Hurricane Helene salvaged, blowdown tree from the high country of Grayson County, Virginia. This tree was over 200 years old, salvaged and processed by Cunningham Handmade Instruments, it has been air dried over the last year and now has made its way to a beautiful Cunningham flattop guitar that was raffled off in support of traditional music education and programming at The Handmade Music School.
We are incredibly grateful to Jackson for creating this amazing guitar to benefit the mission of the Handmade Music School — and we were blown away by all the support for our organization! We sold over 1,100 tickets this year, and received donations from 10 different countries! Donors purchased tickets from all over the United States (including Hawaii!). Numerous donors purchased multiple tickets — 68 people purchased 4 tickets, 9 donors purchased 8 tickets, and 9 other donors bought 10 or more tickets. Of those, two donors purchased 20 tickets, and one donor purchased 38!! And even if you only bought one ticket, your support will be fundamental in our supporting our programs and scholarships next year. 2026 is going to be a big year (it’s our 10th anniversary year!), and we couldn’t do it without support like yours.
THANK YOU for making this raffle such a success!