A sweet little story from the local paper in Fulton, N.Y. tells the fate of an old maple tree that was damaged in the blizzard of 1996. As the dying tree was being cut down, violin maker George Thomas approached the owner, an older lady who refused to speak to him the first time he knocked on her door. He persisted and gave her his condolences on the loss of her tree. Then he made his request: he wanted a few pieces of wood to make the tree live again as a violin. She agreed and the resulting stack of wood has become more than 30 violins. Thomas gives the wood away to those he know will make an instrument from it.