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Student Performers Experience 'Music Miracle'
February 24, 2015
What started as a service project idea for Sperreng Middle School eighth-grader Olivia Borman turned into a “Music Therapy Miracle” this holiday season, when a group of musically talented students performed for an appreciative audience of senior citizens at Aberdeen Heights Senior Living in Kirkwood. Olivia wrote an essay to recount the amazing experience in her own words. It is reprinted below.
“This experience brightened our day probably more than it did theirs,” Olivia says. “So much joy came at once from all of them singing, and it was amazing.”
Sperreng Middle School has a program called Flyer Time. It is a character education class that lasts for about 20 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. The student leaders of these groups are called the Pilots. At a meeting with all of the pilots, earlier in the year, we elected to make supporting our seniors the school wide service project for the year. The program was later developed into SOS, Saving Our Seniors. Recently a group of 8th Grade Band Students, myself included, went to a Nursing/Assisted Living Home called Aberdeen Heights. The first time we visited the nursing homes around the area, we delivered placemats to the residents.
After this experience, I had the idea to go play Christmas Carols for the next visit to Aberdeen Heights. I asked Mr. Wyss, our band director at Sperreng, for Christmas music books for various instruments and then I went home and printed individual packets for each member of my group. For two weeks, the group of us, mostly Flyer Time Pilots, sacrificed time in our Flyer time and band classes, as well as after school, to practice.
When the day finally came, Thursday, December 18, 2014 we were ready. After playing our instruments in the Assisted Living section of the building, our next stop was the memory unit. The residents were waiting for our arrival and Lauren Fiedler and I (on flute) began playing. Unlike the Assisted Living section, the residents began to sing along because the volunteers that were working with the residents before us had handed out Christmas Carol booklets that had lyrics to many of the songs we were playing.
What started as a service project idea for Sperreng Middle School eighth-grader Olivia Borman turned into a “Music Therapy Miracle” this holiday season, when a group of musically talented students performed for an appreciative audience of senior citizens at Aberdeen Heights Senior Living in Kirkwood. Olivia wrote an essay to recount the amazing experience in her own words. It is reprinted below.
“This experience brightened our day probably more than it did theirs,” Olivia says. “So much joy came at once from all of them singing, and it was amazing.”
“Music Therapy Miracle”
by Olivia Borman
Sperreng Middle School has a program called Flyer Time. It is a character education class that lasts for about 20 minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. The student leaders of these groups are called the Pilots. At a meeting with all of the pilots, earlier in the year, we elected to make supporting our seniors the school wide service project for the year. The program was later developed into SOS, Saving Our Seniors. Recently a group of 8th Grade Band Students, myself included, went to a Nursing/Assisted Living Home called Aberdeen Heights. The first time we visited the nursing homes around the area, we delivered placemats to the residents.
After this experience, I had the idea to go play Christmas Carols for the next visit to Aberdeen Heights. I asked Mr. Wyss, our band director at Sperreng, for Christmas music books for various instruments and then I went home and printed individual packets for each member of my group. For two weeks, the group of us, mostly Flyer Time Pilots, sacrificed time in our Flyer time and band classes, as well as after school, to practice.
When the day finally came, Thursday, December 18, 2014 we were ready. After playing our instruments in the Assisted Living section of the building, our next stop was the memory unit. The residents were waiting for our arrival and Lauren Fiedler and I (on flute) began playing. Unlike the Assisted Living section, the residents began to sing along because the volunteers that were working with the residents before us had handed out Christmas Carol booklets that had lyrics to many of the songs we were playing.
One man was slumped down in his chair looking down at his sheet of carols. He hadn’t moved or said anything, the whole time we were setting up, and all of a sudden, in a deep voice began to sing. This man, diagnosed with Alzheimer's, had not spoken a word to anyone in four years. The song, "Frosty the Snowman", reached back into the man's memory, something thought to be near impossible for a man in his condition, and pulled out his voice in song. When they say that music helps you to remember, they aren't kidding. I've heard about people having similar experiences, and thought "Wow, that's great!" without fully understanding and appreciating the special occurrence. But now I have experienced something as powerful as this first hand, and it’s life changing.
Sperreng Middle School students (back, L-R) Lauren Fiedler, Olivia Borman, Alex Foerstel, Claire McCune, (front, L-R) Kara Weiss, Janelle Gray, Allison Shakiba and Abby Hegger experienced a music miracle this holiday season when they performed at Aberdeen Heights Senior Living. |