Tommy Stinson auctions off memorabilia for Haiti

Could that devastating Haitian earthquake help reunite one of indie-rock’s most beloved bands?

That might be asking too much, but Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson enlisted his old pals Paul Westerberg and Chris Mars in an online auction to raise money for Haitian children. The Timkatec schools – which will benefit from the monthlong auction at Charity Buzz -- house and educate kids in Port-au-Prince.

This all came about after Stinson visited the Caribbean country in July. After meeting the kids at Timkatec, the current bassist for Guns N’ Roses, went great guns on a fundraiser. While he was there, Stinson – who never graduated high school because he was touring with The Replacements -- handed out diplomas to some of the students.

Stinson is hocking, among other things, a two-week vacation in the Bahamas, VIP passes to Coachella 2011 and tickets to the current GnR European tour. But perhaps the holy grail up for grabs is a First Act guitar given to him by Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner and signed by Stinson, Westerberg and Mars. “I left it in the box along with the duct tape on the pickup, as I thought it was charming and ultimately looked like a Replacements guitar,” Stinson says on the auction site.