On Thursday evenings, Kyle Stevens drives to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on Meadowdale Road. Stevens is in the Army National Guard, based with 201st field artillery regiment in Fairmont. He brings his guitar with him.
Stevens teaches guitar to veterans who gather at the church. He comes into one of the church’s rooms and sets up his teaching space.
A white board has last week’s lessons on it. It’s chords. He goes through his lesson plan in preparation, but only one veteran walks in for that night’s lesson.
Tom Crites, who served as a submariner, takes a seat in an old plastic chair and unpacks his guitar. Although it might seem like a drawback that Stevens only has one student that night, it’s in fact the opposite. Stevens meshes well with Crites, and soon the two of them are jamming together, caught up in the rhythm of their tune. Crites is learning, and Stevens excitedly pushes him through each chord progression. Together they sing, age and service differences forgotten.
“Our main goal with Vets With Guitars is to teach veterans how to play,” Stevens said. “Just to keep them occupied, give them something to do. Sometimes, it’s a coping mechanism for some of them. Other times, they want to get involved in their community. Meet other veterans.”
Stevens is a chapter coordinator for the program and has worked as an instructor for several years. He began as an instructor during his Fairmont State days, and became coordinator only a few years ago.
The program is coordinated through the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. Stevens said veterans who want to participate must enroll in the VA, for starters, and also receive a referral from their primary care provider at the VA.
No mental health diagnosis is needed to receive a referral, Stevens said, the referral is necessary because it’s a VA sponsored program. The beginner class is a 10-week program where students receive a practice guitar and upon graduating, receive a brand new guitar to keep practicing on.
After graduation, vets can join other Vets with Guitar workshops around the area, and form connections and camaraderie with other vets.
“It’s nice that they can come together and relax,” Stevens said. “Have that camaraderie and learn a skill, right? A lot of these guys and gals, they’ll tell you, ‘when I started to learn how to play guitar, I took it back home. Got involved with the son or daughter or grandchild, or the spouse or a brother or sister,’ and it’s like they had that to bond on because they were able to play music together.”
Although Stevens eschews the therapy label, the act of learning guitar and finding camaraderie with fellow vets can provide therapeutic benefits. Stevens avoids the therapy label because he himself, as well as the other instructors, are not therapists themselves.
“We’re not billing it as, like saying it’s therapy,” Michael Andrew said. He’s the lead recreational therapist at Louis A Johnson VAMC in Clarksburg. “We’re saying, ‘this is what we’re offering. You come in, you learn how to play. We all know that the therapeutic benefits is going to happen.”
Andrew started Vets With Guitars. He said the important thing is to ensure vets are learning something new that makes them feel good about themselves. It serves as a way to spend time without turning to unhealthy things to manage. It builds social skills by placing vets around other similar people and allows them to build a support system. Building a support system is important for vets.
“The bigger your support system, the more ideas you might get to help deal with whatever you’re facing,” Andrew said. “Another thing about a support system, especially with guys with depression, somebody in the support system calls him and like, ‘Hey, let’s go do something,’ to help get them out of that depression.”
For that reason, Andrew is passionate about helping vets build the support network they need.
Andrew said he’s seen the program help with things such as anger issues and anxiety. He’s run into families who say they’ve seen a big change in their veteran family member who picked up a guitar. One wife even mentioned her husband quit using profanity. Since 2015, over 500 members have graduated.
The program has been valuable to Crites. He said his attempts to pick up guitar on his own usually come to naught, but after having Vets With Guitars suggested to him, he decided to try it out. So far he’s made great progress, making it farther than he ever did on his own.
Crites understands that the program is also a lifeline for certain vets.
“They worry about suicide prevention,” he said. “I think when veterans have certain things on their minds, they get a lot of time to think on their own. You sit on a couch and think, think, think, it’s not good. I don’t think that’s healthy. I think you need to get out and talk to people. Get interested in something.”
Playing guitar relaxes Crites, it’s something he enjoys doing. It provides an outlet and something to do while at home. Stevens has encouraged Crites to strike out on his own and go to other workshops to build his skills and relationships with other vets.
Stevens said donations are important to keep Vets With Guitars going. Used guitars are especially useful, as is money for supplies.
Whether its veterans from the Vietnam War all the way through Afghanistan or Iraq, keeping them in a healthy and productive environment is important. Stevens is glad veterans are using the resources the VA provides. He’ll continue to be there on Thursdays, teaching guitar.
“So instead of somebody saying like, ‘You know, I’m not feeling well, I’m gonna go out to a bar,’ something to that effect, they can say, ‘Hey, I have an outlet here,'” Stevens said. “I can hang out with people. I can take my mind off of things playing guitar.”
___
(c) 2024 the Times West Virginian
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
