Graduation Present 2016

Mo started a Ukulele Club at school a couple years ago and I was honored to be the faculty advisor.  The first year there were lots of kids so I just hung out and read/listened.  This year there was a conflict for most kids so it ended up just being her and me for most weeks and after awhile the uke got set down and I taught her banjo.
A little backstory:  I went to school one Halloween wearing coveralls and a straw hat and took a banjo.  When I was standing in the hall playing this girl stopped and stared, I asked if she liked banjo and grabbing it out of my hands while the strap was still over my shoulder, she said, "I've always wanted to learn to play banjo."  Well that was Mo, and to be honest I don't think there's an instrument she doesn't want to play.  I hooked her up with a banjo a neighbor was selling, then gave her a uke someone gave me (no strings attached) which she had restored and displays in the lower pic.  For her birthday this year she went to Jake Shimabukuru with Gail and I.  At the concert Gail learned there's a uke group at work and wanted me to bring hers home from school; problem was, I loaned it to a student who never gave it back.  I asked Mo to help me with the purchase of a new one for Gail at Ithaca Guitar Works which she was more than happy to do.  Talk about a kid in a candy store;  she wanted to play everything and I learned she really, really, really wants to play mandolin.  There she is in the top pic, with some flattering words about me from her blog, with her graduation present.