WATCH: What is this instrument and how is it helping others?

• Benefit concert took place over the weekend
• Local association bringing Syrian family to the Okanagan

Soldiers during the U.S. Civil War played cigar box guitars around campfires to pass the time at night.

Today, its modern counterpart is being used to help refugees fleeing their own war.

A benefit concert at Benvoulin Heritage Church saw musicians share a cigar box guitar. It was passed from one to the other, each strumming out a unique tune.

The evening, dubbed the Cigar Box Guitar Project, was held for a Syrian family who recently came to West Kelowna through sponsorship.

“Here we are, several centuries later, the war in Syria has displaced over seven million people,” Allison Fader with the Okanagan Syrian Sponsorship Circle, told Kelowna10. “Many of whom have come to Canada.”

The refugee family consists of a mother and father, aged 66 and 68, respectively, and two sons aged 33 and 23, as well as a daughter, age 31. Ongoing fundraising from the project will go to support housing.

The new Canadians are focused on learning English and acquiring employment to support themselves once their sponsorship term ends.

At the concert, each performer was challenged to make an original composition and given one week to practice with the instrument, which has a storied history. The first iterations of it came to life via a cigar box fiddle, made by people with no money, but a bounty of innovation. They fashioned the instrument out of a cigar box, a broom stick, and wire from a screen door.

Fader assembled a list of 10 local performers for the concert. Two tested positive for COVID-19 and had to back out, but two more stepped up with only a few days’ notice and were able to still write original pieces.

Fader said her passion for helping people affected by war was partly influenced by her travels. She’s been to 58 countries in her lifetime, including less developed ones where living conditions are very poor.

“I come back to my beautiful condo in Canada, and I turn on the hot water and get in the shower. I say, ‘thank God I was born in Canada,’” she said. “We have so much here, and other people have so little. Let’s make a bigger table and share what we have.”

Over $3,000 was raised on the night.