How Taylor Swift helped Sioux Falls fundraising event hit $1M

The pressure was on to land a big, record-breaking bid.

For two years, the annual Big Stars & Pink Guitars fundraiser for the Sanford Health Foundation had raised more than $900,000 to support the Edith Sanford Breast Center and breast cancer research.

It was a major climb from the inaugural event seven years ago, which netted $187,000, but it still created somewhat of a million-dollar monkey on the back of organizers striving to see a seven-figure total.

“We knew we had to do something big to get to $1 million,” said Erin Sanderson, the foundation’s vice president.

Event ambassador Kory Van Sickle, who was inspired to bring the idea for the event forward, was ready to make it happen.

“I’ve truly always had a heart for giving, and I definitely like finding creative ways to give,” said Van Sickle, whose band Kory & the Fireflies has a history of giving back.

The idea that became an annual fundraiser ties back to Van Sickle’s business, Firefly Guitars, which started about 12 years ago.

He produces the signature pink guitar crafted to resemble a ribbon for breast cancer awareness. Staff at the Denny Sanford Premier Center presents several guitars to headline artists who perform there. The hope is that the artist will sign four — three to auction off and one to display at the venue — and then keep one of the guitars as a gift.

“And 98 percent of them accept because it’s a pretty cool gift,” Van Sickle said. “I always joke they get plenty of fruit baskets and local team jerseys, but they don’t get many custom guitars.”

He even made one left-handed for Paul McCartney several years ago. Over the years, the Big Stars & Pink Guitars event has benefited in a big way, auctioning guitars from everyone from The Eagles to Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood.

The guitars typically auction for $10,000 to $50,000 — the record was U2 at $62,000 — and those signed by artists who performed locally are displayed around the Premier Center too.

“So there’s a collection that’s growing,” Van Sickle said.

He has his own collection of signed guitars and other memorabilia as well, which led to this year’s big fundraiser finale.

Van Sickle had visited U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis when Taylor Swift performed, “and we had some pink Firefly guitars for when she played there, and that one didn’t happen,” he said. “And I had one in my collection.”

So he donated his own black acoustic guitar signed by Swift and with the help of Piper Arts & Custom Framing created a piece with a pink FireFly guitar along with an authenticated autograph permanently mounted.

“Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you had a sense even several years ago this might be something good,” he said. “Truly in our lifetime, there’s never really been anything like Taylor Swift. There’s so much more connection now. Everybody knows who she is, and she’s smashing every record out there.”

Van Sickle and the Sanford team, however, were about to smash one of their own records thanks to that big donation.

“He kind of surprised us a little bit,” Sanderson said. “It’s this huge frame, and along with it, Gunderson’s donated a custom-made pink diamond guitar necklace, so it was this huge package at the end. It was so fun. … People started freaking out.”

And then, they started bidding. In the end, business owner and philanthropist Brian Kern from Madison went home with the night’s top prize — after a donation of $100,000.

He’s one of several regulars at the event who now has a growing personal collection of pink guitars, Van Sickle said.

And the donation was enough to put the fundraiser over the top — exceeding $1 million raised in one night.

“And it was truly because of that Taylor Swift guitar at the end,” Sanderson said. “We knew we had to do something big, and we did it.”

Here’s a video recap of the event: