COEUR d'ALENE - Whether you play guitar, tuba, the triangle or the spoons, grab your instrument and head downtown for lunch next week.

Street Music Week, a melodious fundraiser for Second Harvest Food Bank, is coming to Coeur d'Alene for the very first time.

"I have always wanted to bring this to Coeur d'Alene," said organizer Jim Lyons.

From noon to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, musicians can walk down to Sherman Avenue and do some busking for good. Music-lovers can listen. Everyone can toss money into the buskers' buckets. Every cent collected will go to Second Harvest Food Bank of the Inland Northwest, a Spokane-based agency that provides millions of pounds of food to communities and food banks throughout North Idaho and the region.

Street Music Week began a dozen years ago when Spokesman-Review columnist Doug Clark performed solo with his acoustic guitar in downtown Spokane and collected money for the food bank. Now open to all performers, the event attracts several hundred musicians each year.

This is the inaugural Street Music Week in Coeur d'Alene.

Lyons, of Spokane, has been involved since the event's early years in that city.

A musician himself, Lyons has a strong Lake City connection. For the last five years, he has been employed by Kootenai Health and worked in the hospital's emergency room. He worked with Coeur d'Alene city officials and downtown businesses to bring the event to Sherman Avenue.

Adding Coeur d'Alene as a venue means Street Music Week will be taking place simultaneously in three different states. Similar sidewalk serenades will be taking place next week in Spokane and in the city of Appleton, Wis.

Lyons said performers of all abilities are welcome.

In Spokane, Street Music Week has attracted Grammy-winning musicians, he said, and kids who've taken five violin lessons.

"We've learned that it's not about virtuosity. It's about generosity," Lyons said.

It is about having fun while fundraising, and filling the downtown area with music for one hour each day during the week.

Since its inception, Street Music Week has raised $66,000 for Second Harvest.

Coeur d'Alene's Street Music Week headquarters will be Art Spirit Gallery, 415 Sherman Ave.

"You just come down, get a bucket and a badge and go," Lyons said. "Our goal is to make the downtown lively."