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Guitar will go for child safety Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Vicki Kelly of Phoenix is selling a guitar covered with signatures of famous musicians on e-bay to raise money for the Tommy Foundation, which is dedicated to helping parents of missing children. Kellys will auction signed instrument to benefit their foundation for parents of missing children By BILL VARBLE Mail Tribune Vicki Kelly figures her husband's old guitar is worth $10,000 to $20,000, give or take. The Kellys plan an online auction of the acoustic Yamaha signed by musicians from rockers Crosby, Stills and Nash to bluesman Taj Mahal. The Phoenix resident says the auction, set to open Jan. 26 on e-bay, will raise money for the Tommy Foundation, a nonprofit corporation the Kellys set up in memory of their son, who died after being injected with methamphetamine in 1999. The Tommy Foundation provides child safety tips and information to parents of missing children. Bids will close Feb. 14. Also up for bid are vintage rock concert posters by the Moody Blues, Crosby, Stills and Nash and others, as well as autographed CDs and books. Musicians who have signed the guitar include Justin Hayward and Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues, Neal Smith and Dennis Dunaway of Alice Cooper's original group, members of Blue Oyster Cult and other bands. "We're old hippies," Kelly says. "We believe in activism through music, veteran cosmic rockers." Tom Kelly once managed Psychedelic Supermarket and helped the band get started. "They were all kids from Hollywood," Vicki Kelly says. The guitar and a display about Oregon's "Tommy law" are scheduled to be on exhibit at Phoenix High School the week of Jan. 21. "We want to show the kids they can make a positive change," Kelly says. The e-bay event is called "The Saved by the Music/Tommy Foundation Auction for the Issue of Missing Children." For a link to artists signing the guitar, visit http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc/tkelly48 . Contact the Tommy Foundation at 535-5184, or e-mail [email protected]. Kelly says the guitar project got rolling when she and her husband went to Hollywood in August to attend a gathering for Glen Buxton, a former lead guitar player for Alice Cooper. Some of the Cooper people signed the guitar, and soon she was networking for more signatures. A friend told the Moody Blues about Tommy and the Kellys when the vintage rockers were performing in Reno, Nev., and keyboardist Mike Pinder arranged a dinner they attended near Sacramento. Kelly wrote and told rocker Graham Nash that the Kellys played his song "Someday Soon" at their son's funeral. "Graham and I became e-mail buddies after that," Kelly says. "The support of the rock community has been outstanding." Nash sent her front-row seats and backstage passes to a show he did in Eugene in October. Seventeen-year-old Tommy Kelly disappeared in January 1999 after being injected with drugs at a party. The family went through 18 months without knowing the fate of their son until his body was found in blackberry brambles in a creek bed near his home. The Kellys were outraged that the man convicted of injecting their son was released after serving less than a year in a state Corrections Department boot camp in North Bend. Since it was considered a nonviolent offense, the family was not listed as victims to be notified. "A foul-up in the paperwork," Kelly says. The case prompted passage of the "Tommy laws," which Gov. John Kitzhaber signed on May 25, National Missing Children Day. The laws make injecting a minor with drugs a class A felony and mandate that police report missing children immediately to a national database. Kelly now talks to parent groups and young people and writes about child safety. She's been invited to a March conference in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Justice Department and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Her goal is to see at least 30 parents trained to advocate for missing children and for laws similar to Oregon's. "We want to see a 'Tommy law' in every state," she says. Jan. 26 is the third anniversary of Tommy Kelly's disappearance. Reach reporter Bill Varble at 776-4478 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.