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A group of Los Angeles high school students are thanking Eddie Van Halen for the guitar donation he made earlier this year via the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation.

Pictured above are a group of Garfield High School students with their instruments and a message of thanks to the guitar icon.

Eddie donated 75 electric guitars from his personal collection to the Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports music education in public schools across the country.

Per Van Halen's request, the Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation distributed the guitars to music programs in public schools throughout the Los Angeles area where there are not enough instruments to meet the demand of students enrolled.

"Music is the universal language. It has the ability to transcend and convey every human emotion that exists without saying a word,” said Eddie at the time. “Music kept me off the streets and out of trouble and gave me something that was mine that no one could take away from me. Music education and families are dealing with the economic times, and I wanted to help them. If I can help a kid discover a liking, or even a passion for music in their life, then that's a wonderful thing. Music has provided a good life for me and hopefully it can help make life better for others with this donation."

The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation donates new and refurbished musical instruments to underserved schools in an effort to give youngsters the many benefits of music education, help them to be better students and inspire creativity and expression through playing music. Hundreds of thousands of students across the country have benefitted and thousands of instruments have been donated to more than 1,100 school music programs across the country.

More information can be found at www.mhopus.org.

Below is the original news story from January regarding Eddie's donation.

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