Pink piano to be sold at charity

A DECREPIT old piano has been restored after six months of hard work from a local Geelong Men’s Shed with the colourful instrument set to be sold off at auction for charity.

The collaboration between Geelong West resident Lynda White and volunteer

members at Geelong East Mens Shed (GEMS) has resulted in a beautifully refurbished, vintage and stunningly pink C. Oehler Stuttgart piano brought back to life and on the market to be sold at Cystic Fibrosis Geelong’s Gala Ball in May of next year.

“They are an incredible group at GEMS, and this is just one of the many examples of how important they are as a community group,” Ms White said.

“I rang a couple of other sheds who said they weren’t interested, but these guys just jumped in head first, gave it a red-hot crack and during the couple of times I’ve gone down to their location, I’ve seen some real amazing works on display.”

A local real estate business owner, Ms White first came across the downtrodden piano two years ago when a former tenant of hers had left it behind at their place of residence.

By law she was required to store the piano for 30 days, but no one came to collect after several attempts of contact.

A few months later, Ms White decided to explore her options to renovate the piano.

“When Lynda first brought the piano and told me what she wanted, I’ve got be honest I was shocked,” GEMS president Ian
Hughes said.

“It was in a pretty bad state of repair when we got it, but we put a lot of work into it.

“It turned out beautifully in the end and that is a major credit to Ian Hamilton and Wayne Clarke, who played a massive part in the restoration.

“We offer woodwork and metalwork at our shop, and we have a number of craftsmen within our group, so we have done things like this in the past, but not to this extent.

“It was a terrific effort on the part of our members.”

Mr Hughes said Mr Hamilton was recently diagnosed with cancer and hds not yet been able to see the completed piano in person.

Ms White said there were a few tasks that needed to be sorted before May’s Cystic Fibrosis Geelong Gala Night.

She said she required a local removalist to donate some of their time to transport the piano on the night of the gala, an experienced painter to recoat 14 keys on the piano, and a professional piano tuner to tune the instrument once it arrives at the winner of the auction’s residence.

Ms White and her auctioneer Leah Young will co-ordinate the sale of piano for Cystic Fibrosis Geelong.

To find out more about GEMS, head to geelongeastmensshed.com