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Girls find music from Buffett and his ukuleles
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-06 12:36 In fact, the first richest, Bill Gates, does play. Buffett taught him. At the red brick Girls Inc building in North Omaha, about 170 girls spend a few hours after school each weekday on such areas as reproductive health, careers, art, culture, fitness and nutrition. They also do homework. And now, each Thursday, University of Nebraska at Omaha music student Mark Gutierrez shows up to teach ukulele. Lessons are in the Sewing Room, which has balls of yarn along one wall and oversized ukulele chords pasted to another. "It's a good opportunity for me to go into something new," says 11-year-old Deja Gregory, who also plays the violin. Susie Buffett's Sherwood Foundation is a major donor to Girls Inc, and her dad's ties have also paid off. In 2006, Buffett auctioned his car for $73,200. Two years later, a painting of him was sold for $100,000. Denai Fraction, a 15-year-old learning the ukulele and who also plays clarinet, met Buffett in October at an annual fund-raiser where Hillary Clinton, then a US senator and now Secretary of State, spoke. "It shows a lot about his personality and his character and his morals," she says, referring to the gift. "He doesn't just think about the money." Buffett plans to stop by to check the girls' progress in learning the ukulele. The girls will welcome him. "It's kind of fun," says Cheyenne Wulff, who is 9. "You get to meet somebody that's almost famous."
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