The Vol Piper

If anyone has two extra tickets to the game on Saturday for sale let me know - a friend from Ethiopia will be in town and I want to show him the Vols in full form!

Thanks Sequoyah Hills and WVLT!

https://www.wvlt.tv/2021/12/10/santa-plays-bagpipes-raise-money-second-harvest-food-bank/

Santa plays bagpipes to raise money for Second Harvest Food Bank Saint Nicholas was in the Sequoyah Hills neighborhood Friday, where he played the bagpipes for all to hear while collecting money for Second Harvest Food Bank.

Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee is getting all of their donations doubled for the next few minutes - I’ve been out playing Christmas tunes on the pipes raising money. Please donate!

Call in at 865.243.8227 or go to secondharvesttn.org now!

I'll be teaching FREE beginner bagpipe lessons starting Monday, August 16th at 5:30pm at Buffat Heights Baptist Church. Lessons are every Monday.

If you would like to join, shoot me a message!

Hello friends!

If you've ever wondered what I do in my day job, now is your chance! I'll be presenting a Pecha Kucha tonight around 8pm streaming live from the Bijou Theater about my work with increasing farmer income in the Myanmar Delta. Grab a beer and tune in - I'm excited about this, and there's going to be some great other presenters!

PechaKucha Event: Knoxville-Vol-38 We are looking forward to streaming live from one of our favorite Knoxville venues, The Bijou Theatre, while hearing from this diverse line up of presenters! Let's come together virtually to support our friends & neighbors. // February 11, 2021 | Live stream begins at 7:45pm; Presentations begin at....

Good tidings to you and your kin!

In the era of COVID, group caroling has been deemed a "no-no." Fortunately, I'm loud enough to not need a group! I'll be stopping through a few local neighborhoods today to play Christmas carols.

The stars have aligned a bit, because it's finally warm enough for me to play outside, but also today is DOUBLE DONATION DAY at Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee until 7pm tonight. That means for each dollar donated, Second Harvest is able to provide SIX meals instead of three! So feel free to donate online at https://community.secondharvestetn.org/pages/dyd-2020-main, by phone at (865) 243-8227, or by cash directly into the bag I'll be carrying around. Please do NOT use the Facebook donation link today, as it won't get doubled.

If you do donate by link or phone, drop me a line to let me know how much so I can add it to the campaign total!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Tune into WVLT at 9pm tonight - they will be airing a documentary showcasing the winners of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and their impact on COVID relief, including myself as Outstanding Philanthropist supporting Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee!

We did it!!! I'm super excited to announce that I've been named Outstanding Philanthropist by the Association of Fundraising Professionals for our work supporting Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee!

Keep your eyes open for the documentary about our work being released on November 22nd at 9pm on MyVLT. Thanks to everyone who supported me in this and to everyone who donated to the campaign!

In case you missed it, join us in congratulating this year’s National Philanthropy Day honorees for their remarkable efforts in serving our community! You can learn more about these honorees and East Tennessee’s resilience in light of COVID-19 by watching this year's National Philanthropy Day documentary, coming soon to MyVLT.

As it's my 35th birthday, I figured I'd share this picture of me and my grandmother Julia Tucker (and Teddy) from way back when. The pipes are in my blood!

Thanks to Second Harvest for the newsletter feature!

Needing some Monday motivation? Check out The Vol Piper's story in this month's Feeding Hope newsletter here: https://secondharvestetn.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/15-XSHET-0720-N.pdf! Supporters constantly surprise us with their creative ways to raise funds and awareness on our behalf.

So you may not know, but I actually live in a castle downtown - Williamswood Castle to be exact. Unfortunately a few days ago someone broke in and stole our knight that keeps guard over the front foyer. Please let me know if you’ve seen him anywhere - he misses home dearly!

"The penguins were not impressed. The explorers wrote that 'there was no excitement, no sign of appreciation or disapproval, only sleepy indifference.'”

The Time a Scotsman Played Bagpipes for a Penguin in Antarctica Gilbert Kerr donned full Highland dress in the Antarctic cold.

Had a great session with John and Tracy at Blackberry Farm on Memorial Day!

Come join us at
https://youtu.be/VriLhXhRltg for Music For Meals at 7pm EDT as musicians (including yours truly) and local celebrities gather virtually to raise money for Second Harvest!

Music For Meals East Tennessee musicians come together to fight hunger.

Thank you so much to Susan Alexander of CityView magazine for the writeup and and the incomparable Katie Norrell of Silver Highway for donating the photos. We’re up to $19,000 in contributions to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee as of yesterday, and we are so grateful for the support of everyone that has donated and listened in. Love to all of you!

Thanks for the coverage - the EUSPBA is our Eastern United States Pipe Band Association. We're more than halfway to our goal of $30,000 for Second Harvest - let's keep pushing on!

Our Good News Story – Tyler Roy - Eastern United States Pipe Band Association Our Good News Story – Tyler Roy I’m sure many of you have seen on TV the long lines of cars trying t

OH NO!!! I’ve managed to snap the tuning pin off of my bass drone 😞 these bagpipes will be out of commission until I get them fixed, as the manufacturer is closed due to COVID.

Does anyone have access to a machine shop or machining tools to either bore it out or set some threads in it?

Thanks!!!

A huge thanks to County Commission Chairman Hugh Nystrom for his generous $500 donation to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee yesterday! Thanks Hugh!

Can we please have a moment of recognition for my “understanding” wife Maja Roy

On Easter Sunday I played Amazing Grace in front of 23 empty churches in Knoxville for their congregations - WVLT covered it this morning. Now more than ever it is important to stay connected to your communities and each other, even from a distance!

I don't want to post all of the videos so as not to flood the page, but I am happy to post your church's video upon request! Here are the churches I visited:

Eastminster Presbyterian
Chilhowee Hills Baptist
Knoxville Baptist Tabernacle
Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church
Macedonia United Methodist
Greater Warner Tabernacle AME Zion
Magnolia Avenue United Methodist
Fifth Avenue Baptist
Central United Methodist
Broadway Baptist Church
Fourth United Presbyterian
Living Waters Church
First Lutheran Church & School
St. John's Lutheran
Church Street United Methodist
St. John's Episcopal Cathedral
First Baptist Church
Immaculate Conception
Second Presbyterian Church
Laurel Church of Christ
Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Mount Harmony Baptist Church

Happy Easter!

CW: The Vol Piper continue to lift spirits In the past few weeks you may have heard sounds of bagpipes roaming around your neighborhood. The piper behind the bag is Tyler Roy also known as The Vol Piper. For Roy, playing bagpipes is all about lifting spirits in a time of need. On top of lifting spirits, the Vol Piper is also raising money fo...

Tune in to WVLT tomorrow for a live interview with me at 8am!

On Tuesday I said "this is the last time I'll come to Sequoyah Hills for a while" because despite how much I love it, there's so many other neighborhoods in Knoxville that I want to brighten up.

However, one of your neighbors recently made an INCREDIBLY generous donation to Second Harvest and the Knoxville Pipes and Drums on the condition that we come play ONE MORE TIME today at their home in Sequoyah Hills. Because we love you so much, we're going to do one last lap of an area we haven't played yet!

We will have several pipers (and possibly some drummers) starting at the corner of Cherokee Blvd. and Kenesaw Ave., making their way up Cherokee Blvd. to Talahi Dr.

We will start this route some time between 6:30 and 7:00pm this evening Saturday 4/11 (the start time will depend on how long the house performance takes). If you haven't seen us and want to come out, this will be a great (and probably last for a while) chance! All donations will be split between Second Harvest of East Tennessee and the Knoxville Pipes and Drums for equipment repair and purchases. $140 provides a 2 week supply of Emergency Food Boxes for a family of four. A $35 donation feeds one person for 2 weeks.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE maintain social distancing measures - our band certainly will! Do not congregate in groups of more than 10, and stay at least 6 feet away from each other (and us). And bring a mask to wear if you can!

See you this evening, and happy Easter weekend!

(the amazing photo is by your also-amazing neighbor Katie Norrell of Silver Highway photography from the last time we were in Sequoyah Hills!)

A HUGE thank you for such a warm welcome in the Island Home community today. You are all such rockstars raising money for Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee!

Congratulations everyone, we've raised OVER $10,000 for Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee in the last two weeks! This was beyond my wildest expectations - you are all incredible and so unbelievably generous. We're only two weeks into the campaign and we're already to a third of our goal.

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO HAS DONATED!