St. Louis Public Radio board member Diane Katzman was keen about the prospect of a prized Taylor Swift acoustic guitar raising proceeds for the radio station.
She was so enthusiastic, she was urging on the bidding at auction . . . “and I raised my paddle and I got the Taylor Swift guitar,” she said laughing.
No mind. Katzman lives to generate revenue for organizations she loves in creative, artistic ways. It was only a matter of time before she found a novel way to make this win at STLPR’s Hear the Future annual celebration work twice as hard. She would put Taylor’s autographed guitar to good use.
“I knew that it did not need to be housed in my house on my wall,” she said. ‘Although my children were very impressed.”
Instead, she decided to pass on the guitar in a way that was meaningful.
“Who would love this guitar more than the mommies and the daddies and the patients at Children’s Hospital,” Katzman said. “I figured I would donate it to them.”
Katzman approached St. Louis Children’s Hospital with the idea of providing the gift in a very hands-on way that would involve the children and their families.
“So I devised this art experience where the kids would decorate the guitar case and I basically took the stars they decorated and bejeweled them with their beautiful sentiments.”
As the proprietor of Diane Katzman Designs, the task was right in her wheelhouse. Katzman’s custom jewelry designs have appeared on the runways of Kenneth Cole and Calvin Klein, in luxury stores all over the country, and have graced the pages of Elle and InStyle. Though, the children working with Katzman in art therapy had no idea of any of that. The stars the children crafted will hold a special place in Katzman’s heart forever.
All The Mountains We Moved
St. Louis Children’s Hospital’s Child Life Services arranged for Katzman to bring in her baubles, paper, glitter, jewels and lots of kid-friendly bling — including beads of course — to while away the hours.
“A lot of the child-life specialists were Swifties!,” Katzman said. “They were so excited and the moms were so excited and it exhilarated them, possibly even more than the kids,” she said. “We had the Eras Tour movie playing in the background as the kids worked on the guitar case . . . we made friendship bracelets.”
Those who were too sick to participate in person were given supplies to make stars in their hospital rooms with the help of staff.
The fully decorated case now has bracelets dangling from the handle with two special messages for and from the kids. They say “Long Live” and “all the mountains we moved,” a title and sentiment from Swift’s Speak Now album that really resonated with Katzman.
The guitar is now housed in a display case just outside of the Children’s Hospital Child Life Playroom where it will stay until later this fall.
That’s when the guitar and case will be raffled off at the signature Children’s Hospital Play Date “anti-gala” on November 16. The guitar is expected to raise $25,000 for the hospital with 200 $100 raffle tickets up for grabs.
“And it was all made possible by STLPR because STLPR is so entrenched in the community and gives joy and hope to so many people,” Katzman said. “They gave me the impetus to pay it forward and help others.”
It’s Katzman’s ultimate hope that someone will pay it forward one more time, to keep the Taylor Swift guitar on permanent display outside the children’s playroom. That would be a full circle moment, and Katzman is ready for it.
