EastIdahoNews.com and Ashley in Idaho Falls and Pocatello are partnering to honor people in our community for Feel Good Friday. Every week, we surprise someone deserving of special recognition.

We recently received an email from Shelby Murdock, the owner of Snake River Strings Co. in Blackfoot. She wrote:

Dallin Polatis is a 16-year-old guitar student at our school. He takes weekly private lessons and is the best student. His teacher challenges him every week, he takes the critique and improves without a complaint.

He has been telling his guitar teacher about his friend at Snake River High School who has Down syndrome and even though they have differences, they have become close friends lately because of their shared love for the electric guitar.

Dallin has been playing music for and teaching this special friend during downtime at school. His friend does not own a guitar and has been wanting one for months now. It’s all he can talk about! He wanted one for Christmas so bad and talked non stop about it to Dallin at school before the break. When they got back from the Christmas break, Dallin noticed this friend was sad. Dallin found out that he did not get a guitar for Christmas.

Dallin scraped together some cash and came to our store to buy an electric guitar, amp and a cord with cash (over $300 worth) and left. I didn’t know why he was buying the guitar until I talked to his guitar teacher and found out that he was buying the guitar and accessories for this special needs friend from school.

This 16-year-old young man is such an incredible example for us all. He’s not obsessed with himself or showing off his incredible guitar skills – he just wants to help others play music too.

We decided to surprise Dallin for Feel Good Friday – and Snake River Strings Co. had a special surprise for him too. Watch the video above!