Youth offer arts performances for seniors

As a member of the leadership team of the Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa Girls’ Choir and a junior organ scholar, high school student Aleesha Katary regularly helps fill the cathedral with music. During the pandemic, she and her friend Ally Guo found a way to bring music and other arts performances to many seniors in their homes and long-term care residences.

Their Arts for Seniors project began at the Believe Leadership Club at Katary’s school Earl of March. “In this club, students are meant to create a project which involves a passion that they have and a problem that they would like to solve,” she told Crosstalk.  A year into the pandemic, Katary and Guo thought about how isolated seniors were. “We decided that it would be a nice idea to host virtual concerts for these seniors to enjoy from the comfort of their [own] home.”

Katary said one of the most difficult parts of the project was connecting with seniors’ care centres and residences. The first 20 she contacted didn’t respond or said no. “I then reached out to my organ teacher, and she helped me to get in touch with a few facilities that might be interested, and after [that], we were able to get a little momentum. 

“After finding the retirement homes, we had to find students who were willing to participate in our concerts. We advertised online, in our school, and obtained 10 to15 performances in the first concert!” The concerts continued on a monthly basis and are archived on YouTube.

The project also provides an opportunity for the high school students to accumulate the 40 hours of volunteer time they need as a requirement to graduate. The chance to do online concerts was especially valuable during the pandemic when many other opportunities to do volunteer hours were shut down or limited.

Response to the concerts has been very positive, Katary says. In addition to sending the concerts to retirement homes, “We’ve sent these concerts to teachers (to share with their elderly relatives), family members, and any other seniors that we know of. One of our teachers reached out to us and gave us a lot of support; explaining that our concerts really cheer up her mother.”

CBC Radio also heard about the project and interviewed the girls on air. 

“When we send our concerts to the retirement homes, we get a note of thanks from them each month, which really gives us the motivation to keep going with this.”

Katary and Guo took a break from the monthly concerts over the summer, but Katary says they will be starting up again in October, and this year, they hope to do a live in-person concert in the holiday season. 

Find Arts for Seniors at:

https://allyaleeshapassion.wixsite.com/artsforseniors