Under the direction of Dora Dekajlo, the Compassion Connection Club at Preston High School, a Catholic school founded by the Sisters of the Divine Compassion, organized a dance marathon this February to raise money for our Music and Memory Program. Students danced their way to raising $800.00 to help our elders in need. In addition, Preston’s Italian club, under the guidance of Rosemary DeMaio, raised another $100.00. All these gifts are going to help us start up this wonderful program.
We met Anna Kerkorian, music teacher at Preston, this past September when she proposed having her students do a musical activity with the Residents, one that involved getting personalized music for the Residents so as to enliven their day. As soon as we said yes, Mrs. Kerkorian met with coworkers at Preston High to come up with a plan on how to help us. Several of us at Jeanne Jugan went through the Music and Memory Certification Program and now are working actively to get the program up and running. For more information on the Music and Memory Program, click here >>
Fidelma Dolan, a retired nursing home administrator, now volunteer, has been interviewing Residents to ascertain their musical preferences. Slater O’Brien, Senior at Regis High School, is helping to label the iPods, many of which were donated by Preston High students, so that each Resident can have their own iPod to use with their choice of music on it. He will also work on creating the play lists. Friends have been donating iTunes gift cards and CDs to help us to bring this project to fruition.
Bobby Pena has installed caddies in each room so that we can store the iPod and headsets right there in a convenient spot in each Resident room.
We are grateful to Mrs. Kerkorian for this great idea and for the dedication of the folks at Music and Memory for helping us to Make the Elderly Happy, as Jeanne Jugan herself always tried to do.
