Giving Voice Choir

Roddy Dahl is our guest here on WRCO's morning show.

I guess the rock and roll reunion is ready to rock this Saturday.

Here we go again, Roddy.

What's going on?

Well, you know, it's an annual thing.

It's been an annual thing since 2010.

Well, it was biannual in the beginning, but

but now it's an annual thing and uh this is our uh 16th year i think

my goodness and every year brings a special uh feature and what's what's special about this year

uh this year uh we are uh donating all of the money to local immigrants and we are donating the money through uh the free clinic in bosco bell and through the head start cap program

And so it's kind of cool.

We have immigrants that we work around every day in our farming communities and restaurants.

And sometimes I don't think they have some of the same opportunities as some of us that were born and raised here.

And so that was what we decided to do this year.

Okay, and so it goes on on Saturday.

Have you had good response from some of the old pickers and grinners and rock and roll?

Oh, we have an amazing lineup again.

We have about 30 musicians and some of those are involved in collaborations with different bands on the same day.

You know, so we mix it up really, really good.

And when it comes to genres, we've covered all the bases.

We've got some big band type music and we've got country and a little bluegrass and folk and just some rock and roll and some blues and we've got it all mixed up to please just about every music appreciator that there is out there.

Is it possible we might see hey this guy just played guitar a couple of bands ago and he's playing again and you know kind of playing in different bands that day or how does that work Roddy?

Well we have some of the musicians that that have regular bands and and play with different groups during their regular season and some of them have said that they would come by themselves and and then we've had volunteers step up and say hey I'll

I'll be your bass player.

I'll be your drummer.

You know, and so that's really what's really cool about rock and roll reunion is it's a kind of fit everybody in the right place and make it happen.

And, and, uh, it just, it seems to work out.

I don't know how I'm the hardest one to fit in without a little practice, but some of these guys jump in there like they've been playing with these other people their whole lives.

But you have a 45 though.

I have a 45 and I'm going to get that too.

I promise you.

I, you know, I'm talking about 45s to some of these musicians.

They probably don't even know what a 45 is.

I

think it's a gun, I think.

I've been playing on my own show now.

I've been playing a tribute to the band America.

And I was telling this group of young club goers the other day that I'm playing this tribute to the band America.

And they looked at me like America.

I've never heard of the band america and so you know uh different different generations pick up on different things and i might be moving out of what was once popular music i don't know

what time does the music start saturday ronnie

the music starts at 11 o'clock in the morning and each group plays about a half an hour

And then there's about a 10-minute switch over time, and it's nonstop music until pushing 9 o'clock at night.

And this year we used to try to cook simple food on our own, and we do burgers and hot dogs mostly.

And this year we have somebody catering the entire event.

So I think they've got pulled pork and they've got barbecue and chili dogs, but they're also serving a full meals with salad and everything there.

So it takes a big burden off of me, but it's also going to really enhance the, this event, you know, going forward that we can get that kind of service for the food.

In the past, you've had school reunions centered around that.

Will you this year?

It sounds like there's still going to be a couple of school reunions there.

They didn't really promote it so much this year, but I know that one of the organizers from North Crawford, uh, the person that organized it said she couldn't be there, but she did send out an invitation to her entire class saying that, you know, they can still get there and have that reunion there.

Absolutely.

You encourage people to take along lawn chairs or whatever they need.

Yeah, we've uh, we it's in the woodman village park and we do have the old village hall there Which is the old schoolhouse and that's air-conditioned So if we'd happened to end up with some of these unbearable temperatures like we've had this past week There is a place to cool down other than that.

We've got three large tents set up outside

And there are two very nice shelters in the park.

One of them will be the concession area where you can get food.

And that's where we also set up all the memorabilia and posters from years past.

And then there's another large shelter just up the hill where you can see all of the, the bands from there.

And then we've got a couple of big tents too.

So rain or shine, we've got you covered, so to speak.

Tell me about the memorabilia, anything in there that you're most proud of?

Well, there's a lot of neat stuff.

We have one guitar that was given to me by Dave Davidson, who was a lifetime achievement award winner at one time.

And we have designated that guitar as the official rock and roll reunion guitar.

So we have that on display.

And every year, one of the musicians will play that guitar as a tribute to Dave who passed away a few years ago.

Then I've got a personal signature guitar and everybody that I have ever played music with and at these reunions, I try to get them to sign it.

So there's still a few spots that aren't covered on that guitar.

And I know this year we've got some interesting memorabilia from a band they used to call Sky Farmer, which was unbelievably

popular in the Kikaboo River Valley.

And I'm going to try to have some of their records out on display.

And then we encourage people to bring old posters and t-shirts and, and tell stories.

And you know, if they've got records or recordings or CDs, we try to get all that stuff out there too.

That's awesome.

You have that much music and you know, you're quickly turning it around from group to group and artists to artists.

Do you have a lot of volunteers that help lug stuff around?

How does that work?

Right.

Well, we've got a really good, I got a call this morning, as a matter of fact, we've got a really good group of volunteers to help get everything set up.

And so they'll, some of them will come on Thursday and some will come on Friday.

It's supposed to rain on Friday, but it looks like we might sidestep the rain on Saturday.

And so, yeah, we've got a really good group to help get the stage set up.

And we have a beautiful stage.

that we made specifically for rock and roll reunion.

So it's covered and it's wired and it has plenty of room for people to move around on stage without being crowded.

And we have lights, you know, all set up and all that's pretty cool.

We even have an LED sign on the back of our trailer, which displays messages all day long about the performance and where the money's going and so on and so forth.

So yeah, we should be covered, I hope.

I know you had the tribute to the railroad earlier this year.

And so Woodman's been a happening place this summer, hasn't it?

Well, twice a year, we really try to put ourselves back on the map.

We have a dinky days, which is a railroad celebration of our history here in the first weekend after Memorial Day.

And then rock and roll reunion is always the first Saturday

in August.

So even though the date changes obviously we stay with the first Saturday and we bump heads with some other festivals and stuff but we found as long as we pick a weekend and stick with it we have our best average turnouts by you know people can plan a year ahead of time knowing that that event comes up on the first Saturday in August every year.

Can you shed a little light on this year's lifetime achievement person?

I know it's

a secret.

We have three people and of course it's all hush hush.

I can't let the cat out of the bag there.

The one thing that we have kind of changed this year going forward is, you know, I have kind of a close knit group of people that helped plan the first rock and roll reunion.

And, you know, they have been great help, but it is a lot to put together for just one or two or even three people.

So over the past, we have selected people from the list of lifetime achievement award winners, past winners, and we now have a committee of six people that will help plan, will help

decide where the money goes every year, what our theme is, what color the shirts are, what our logos will be.

And going forward, I think that's a really great deal.

We're all getting older and if something happened to one of us, I'd hate to think that this event would not be able to continue.

Some of the board members are performing musicians.

So Kathy Wallin Stowback from Soldiers Grow.

She's a performer and she's a previous award winner.

Dale Hoke, he's a drummer from Iowa.

He's a previous award winner.

Fred DeLondre from Platteville, amazing guitar player, past award winner.

Dean Olson, my old friend, Dean Olson.

And Jay Hoffman from Vroqua, he's on the board.

I'm hoping I didn't miss anybody on there.

And, uh, but anyway, we've got a really, really nice group of people to help plan every year and take this forward.

And I think it helps to build the enthusiasm, you know, when you get more people on board and, you know, try to make these things happen.

How do you make money for the cause then?

Well, it's a free event, you know, as far as admission goes.

So you can bring your own chair, bring your own beverage.

We encourage people to try and buy, you know, all their soft drinks and their food there because a percentage of that food comes back to our cause.

But the main way we raise money is from the sale of t-shirts or just from plain donations.

And we truly appreciate those and accept those, you know, graciously.

And I know that last year our cause was we wanted to give to autism.

And one of the musicians had asked about it the year before because he had a family member with autism.

And I said, that's a great idea.

So we didn't know how to distribute the money to make the best use of it.

So we reached out to CESA 3, which works with all of the local schools.

And we decided that we would pick

five local schools to divide the money up evenly between.

And it was to be used in their sensory rooms in the school, which is the rooms where they can work with all types of children with disabilities and special needs.

And we picked the schools last year based upon their attendance, their enrollment, because the smaller schools, unfortunately don't have the same opportunities as the larger schools do.

And one of those schools,

was real close to you there in Richland Center.

Ithaca was one of the schools that we selected to receive the money last year.

So the money last year went to Cassville, which is probably the smallest school in all of Southwest Wisconsin.

So Cassville, Ithaca, and then we kind of just popped right up to the Kickapoo River Valley with Wasika, Seneca, and North Crawford because all those schools, you know, fit into that small school need.

And we got some really nice letters back.

from those schools thanking the whole group of musicians for their contribution.

That's awesome.

So it all begins with music starting at 11 on Saturday morning.

Roddy, it's kind of like a Woodstock and Woodman,

isn't

it?

That's our new theme.

It's pretty cool.

It's not Woodstock.

It's Woodman stock.

Woodman stock.

Okay.

Yeah, and the old stock will be playing on Saturday.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And, uh, and this year our t-shirts are tie dyed again about everybody loves the tie dyed shirts.

So about every four or five years, uh, will vary from, you know, uh, straight common colors and go back to the tie dye and our logo is truly, uh, impressive this year too.

You know, and it expresses, you know, the unity that, you know, we feel as a country.

all right well we appreciate you taking time to talk to us roddy good luck with rock and roll reunion saturday

and thank you so very much always to wrco for helping us out with all of this stuff

you bet you're always welcome roddy doll joining us on wrco's morning show

The End

On our morning show today, we're going to be talking about the Giving Voice Choir here on WRC on some other topics.

Pam Colberg, dementia care specialist with ADRC of Eagle Country, serving Crawford in Richland Counties is our guest.

Later on, Christy Thompson will be here talking about how she's involved as a volunteer.

And we also have a guest on the phone today, Mary Leonard, co-founder of the Giving Voice Choirs.

Well, Pam, first of all, good morning to you.

Hey, good morning to you.

Hope you're doing

well.

We are doing awesome.

You came to me with this idea, you know for this coming to Richland Center probably over a year ago,

right?

I think it was September I went to a conference and I happened to talk to Mary and Kathy at a table and was like Musical choir, you know Richland County has the longest running band, you know At the high school it has the concert association it has the

performing arts council.

I was like, we are music, right?

We have community choirs.

So I was like, what a great place to have music that includes people with dementia because we know music is good for your brain.

But we also just want people to feel welcome to come out in the community, no matter what condition they're dealing with.

So you kind of had just a by chance meeting with Mary initially, didn't you?

Yeah.

Was that the hope and light?

conference, which is coming again in about two weeks, it's a conference for people with dementia and their caregivers to kind of give them voice.

So when I saw this choir that said give voice choir, I was like, that's the direction I want to go is I really want to honor the people that are, you know, kind of dealing with a disease that they didn't ask for and give them and I love, you know, it's funny, I don't sing well.

but I like singing, like many of us, so I could go and mouth the words and everybody else could sound good, right?

We all did that in middle school, right?

Lip sync.

Yes, there

we go.

How about in the car?

Do you sing when you're driving down the

road?

Oh, only when, yeah, when playing a song.

Yeah, I'm learning country music.

I, you

know.

Joining us by phone today from Minnesota is Mary Leonard.

Good morning, Mary.

Good morning, Bill and Pam.

Good to have you on

the

radio.

Absolutely.

So tell

us

a little bit about this, how it all began, when it all began.

Sure.

Well, it began in 2014.

A friend and I over a glass of wine, she had arts background and I had previously been the executive director of the Alzheimer's Association in Minnesota, North Dakota.

We decided we wanted to work together and do something different.

And one day across our desk came this picture of a woman, Julie Andrews, dancing across the Alps.

And the article was about people with Alzheimer's who sang, who benefited from singing familiar music.

And it was a study out of Helsinki, Finland, that said when people sang with their care partner over a period of time,

had all these benefits and so this research was just coming out about how singing was like a fireworks for the brain like it would improve memory and cognition and balanced emotion and we said well what if we start a choir and that's exactly what we did we're sort of like the little rascals like hey let's come on Sparky let's start a choir

And that's exactly what we did in 2014.

We got some initial funding and we didn't know if it was going to work.

But we formed a partnership with the McPhail Music Center here in Minneapolis.

And we had about 24 people show up to our first rehearsal.

And I knew in the first 15 minutes that it was something special.

And it was special because the people with dementia

who were experiencing a thousand different subtractions in their lives, were all of a sudden able to do something and be in community and belong and have something to look forward to every week.

And it just

worked.

How rewarding is it to know that it's expanded?

It's branched out.

It's not just something in your backyard.

Exactly.

We started with one choir in 2014.

We now have almost 80 around the country, including Canada and Australia.

We developed a toolkit after our first year of doing this work, and that toolkit has been downloaded and used across the world to start these dementia-friendly choruses, just like the one we're starting in Richland Center.

Yeah, we can't wait.

And it sounds like Pam, you've had a pretty good response to it so far.

Yeah, we've been putting fliers around.

I'm really excited about it.

I think people love music.

I was thinking that I used to like to look on YouTube and it said your brain on music and all areas of the brain light up compared to like thinking.

If you think about something and it's one area, but here it lights up all areas.

So I couldn't think of something more joyful to do.

And then once Christy Thompson tracked me down from some, you know, flyer had somewhere and we started having a lot of fun scheming for it.

Um, then, then I thought this is a go.

We got to make it happen.

Yeah.

And Mary, you've had some, some grants that are available to communities as well, haven't you?

Right.

In the last year, we started what we call the Rule Initiative and it's in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

So instead of letting people sort of find us, we actually started a program where we go out to rule communities and we offer seed grants of $5,000 and provide technical assistance and support and ideas and planning and help rule choirs get started.

And we started five

in Wisconsin last year and we're in the process of starting four more this

fall.

I'm sure you've seen lots of success in some stories behind the scenes but I can't help but think about the the documentary they did with Glenn Campbell and how amazing that was and you know music was like the last thing that he remembered.

Yes he's a really good example of someone who was able to hold on to that music part of the brain and perform and enjoy music and

and have it be a big part of the end of his life.

And that's what we see with singing in our choir, is people are able to sing often until the very later stages of the disease and really enjoy it.

And also it's really important for the caregiver of the person with dementia or cognitive changes to be part of that choir as well.

So we're building that community, that coupling where they get to do something together, where they enjoy it.

hits a lot of different boxes as far as being a really strong project for people to belong to.

And people, you know, of all abilities, right, in the choirs?

You do not have to know how to sing.

You don't have to know how to read music.

You can come home.

You can volunteer and help with our cookie and coffee time.

You know, we try to create a very friendly community

environment where everyone feels welcome and that they belong.

Slap your leg in time, whatever it takes, right, Pam?

Yes, it does.

Yeah, we're gonna do some movement, she said, also, like a warm-up with movement, and that's where you get me, music and dancing.

I was just thinking of the Project Music and Memories, Mary, where there was a, if anybody's ever worked in a nursing home around here, they know about that program where they would give people little iPods and help them listen to the music when they were about in their 20s, and that that would help people kind of do, you know, guide them towards, you know, a shower or whatever it was, and the idea was

that music lights up the brain.

And so there's a famous video about Henry, a guy who they didn't think could talk, didn't talk for years.

But when they played music and a song he knew, he started singing.

So here he didn't talk, he didn't speak, but he could sing words, especially from songs that he knew.

And so, yeah, we all know the power of music.

If you've listened at all to WRCO, you know

that.

An important part of our project, Phil, too, is to have a community concert.

So after rehearsing for 10 to 12 weeks, this group of people that come together sing for family and friends in a community setting, and you get to see the power of that music and how it transforms people's lives, and especially those with dementia by being part of this choir,

So I know Pam will have a lot of information about that concert when the time comes, but it's a really powerful way to see what's possible with living with dementia and living well with dementia.

That's an awesome program, Mary, and about goals for the future.

I don't think you ever saw expanding to like 80 choirs.

Are you shooting for more here in the next few years?

We're doing a capacity campaign right now and hope to get to 250 by 2030.

So yes, we call it global domination of dementia-friendly choirs.

We hope to have one in every community because we know there are people living at home with dementia across our country and they're isolated and they're

They're living with a very difficult diagnosis, and here's a chance to come out and experience joy, music, fun, be with other people in a very safe and welcoming setting.

What makes you proudest to be a part of this, Mary?

Oh gosh, it's people like Pam and these champions that see this choir and say, we're going to do that here, and then they make it happen.

I'm so proud of all the people that start these choirs.

It's amazing.

And it'll be happening in Richland Center.

Anything else you want to ask Mary, Pam?

No, I'm impressed.

I didn't know you're part of the Alzheimer's Association, so that was super cool to hear.

But yeah, yeah, and Mary's going to come visit us during our open house if folks want to meet her or maybe during our performance in December.

So yeah, there'll be a chance to meet Mary when she comes to

Good old Rich in Center.

Look forward to it.

I can't wait.

Looking

forward

to it.

All right, Mary, thanks for joining us on the morning show.

Thank you, Phil.

You bet.

Bye, Pam.

Bye.

We'll talk to you later.

Mary Leonard, co-founder of the Giving Voices Choirs, and we'll be right back after this time out.

Thanks to Mary Leonard for being our guest on the first part of the morning show today.

Pam Colberg returns with us to talk about it.

Just sounds like a really groovy thing here and that people are fired up about and a good response.

And I'm just happy it can bring it to Richland Center, Pam.

Yeah.

Well, what's exciting is that we're going to bring out Christy Thompson here, my Queen of Chaos here, that has gone around tracking people down.

And I know people have a busy summer and a lot of churches are undergoing changes.

And we were like, where are we going to perform?

Performing arts centers under construction, all these different places.

So we're getting a little worried there that we had a place to go.

And a couple churches just offered recently.

I really want to appreciate people's willingness to reach out and offer some places.

We ended up going with the Grace Community Church.

They're all on one level.

They're very dementia-friendly space, and they've been super supportive.

So this is the Grace Community Church that's out on Highway AA near the fairgrounds.

So they'll be hosting us.

We'll be doing an open house there on August 20th.

at 10 for people want to come and sing along a little doesn't mean they have to commit to the choir of you know we won't put any ankle bracelet on or anything but they can come and sing along see what it's about see the space meet me meet Christy meet Mary hopefully and see what

kind of what we're doing.

So that's August 20th.

But then we start September 17th.

We run through December.

And then December 6th, that Sunday around 1.30 will be at the Grace Community Church doing our performance.

So it's a chance to form community.

You know me.

I love the word community.

We'll do this forming a community together.

And we have some awesome people with us.

We have a young music therapist named Aubrey Vanteese.

She comes out of Grant County.

And she'll be our music director.

So I'm sure she's going to have a lot of interesting things because she's a music therapist in addition to the music director.

Mary Ewing will be our pianist, our accompanist doing the music.

And then we also have support from Joanne Amell who's like a pianist as well.

If you know Joanne Amell, you know she's a power to be reckoned with and she'll be helping support us in having this happen.

So we just have a really interesting team of people who came together and got this going.

Mm-hmm Christy you heard us on the morning show one day and somehow got motivated

I did I was involved with a choir like this in Eau Claire my friend Joan had received a cancer diagnosis and basically was dying of cancer and she was involved with this choir and we would come home from those practices and she would say

this is the hour and a half a week where I feel normal and so then we would sit down and a lot of times after we had been there she was talking about you know things that had been weighing on her mind you know how soon was she going to die was it going to be painful blah blah blah all of these things so in a way it was kind of therapy for her and uh

I think of it that way because there were other people in that choir as well who, they didn't have dementia, they didn't have memory problems, but I can remember sitting and talking to a fellow who had arthritis and I said, well, how did you get here?

And he says, well, my wife drugged my ass here.

And he said, but you know, he says, this has been good for me.

He said, I realized I can sit here and I can sing.

And I'm not thinking one bit about how much I hurt.

I'm just only able to focus on that band width that involves music and the singing.

So, you know, your brain gets this little mini-vacation because it can't focus on anything except that music.

So I think that would be a really good thing for people to remember.

It's not just for dementia, although that's the main purpose.

But it's really, it's good for your brain.

It's good for your soul.

You're not dwelling on the physical pain or the anguish or anything

like that.

You can't.

You just don't have room for it.

Because if you're focused on something, you're seeing this.

You've got blinders on.

And that's all you can see.

That's all you can focus on.

And what a relief that is.

Because think of how much

stuff you have floating around in your head all day.

And if you just have that, maybe it's five minutes at a stretch where you are able to just sing and that's all you focus on, it's just a relief.

It's just this total clearing out of all the stuff in your head.

And you're not thinking about that.

You're not worrying about everyday things.

You're not worrying about

oh you know I have heart disease and oh what does that mean you're not thinking about I have cancer or I have Parkinson's or whatever it is you're concentrating on this one thing and that is taking up all the space so I think that's a win.

You got involved and stepped up and

Yeah, I did.

I kind of felt like that was, you know, I had been seeing the flyers and then I heard you two on the radio and I thought, that is Jones saying, now come on, Chris, you can do this.

Get it

together.

Call

the

number.

She decided God would have been telling her to try

this.

Well, you know, I think that, you know, my past experience working in nursing homes and dealing with

dementia regularly, but not just dementia, dealing with all sorts of things.

You've got all of these people who have issues.

And you know, my dad used to say, no one has an easy life.

You know, you can look at it from the outside and think that, oh, their life is charmed.

But you don't know what they're dealing with.

And everybody has some of that.

And so when you realize that and you just think, okay, well, no one has

an

easy life, be kind to them because you never know when you're going to be on the receiving end.

So it's just one of those situations where I just felt like that was my nudge, getting here and do this.

You have the experience, you have the background.

I don't know what the technical term is.

She gave me something, but you know, it didn't seem quite extravagant enough.

I think we called you the walking phone book for a while

because you

do.

But like a project assistant or whatever, because on a grant, you have to, you know,

put formal language and apparently, you know, mine had to go fix too.

And so it was just someone to help because I don't think I could have done it without Christy because she literally tracked down.

I know that there's a lot of pianists out there that used to play for solo ensemble.

I know that there's, you know, people who could direct a choir and, you know, kudos to the community choir we have now during the summer.

who I think they have a performance coming up, that you can do all that.

But I didn't have the time to filter, right?

Because I also have another full-time job.

And so I'd really appreciated Christie going through and tracking down the people and asking and finding who was available.

Because this thing is that we're doing it this.

We got the grant to do it a session this fall.

But there's no reason it can't continue in the spring if we got enough sponsors.

So we got the seed grant.

And seed means we planted something here.

And then the hope is that it will

and there's several different other churches that stepped up and offered.

So I think we now, because of Christie's work, are gonna be able to sort of move forward and not have to recreate the wheel.

So I'm hoping that this sort of performances and that in December 6th will then lead to people coming and sponsoring and maybe some sponsors throwing in some cash, and then we can continue it.

So this is just the beginning.

Can we talk about times you're going to be practicing and, you know, goals and how that looks?

Yes.

So what it is is that we want this open house on August 20th at 10 at the Grace Community Church for people to come and meet, register.

They can always call me at 608.

five, four, eight, three, nine, five, four to register.

We do like people to register to know how many people are coming, though the open house, anybody can come.

So they come to the open house, they sign up or they call me.

And then we start practices September 17th.

At 10 o'clock, though, we'll probably do some, you know, fellowship and snacks beforehand at the church.

And then we go an hour and a half because it includes some getting to know each other, maybe some stretching.

And then we're, you know, so we'll meet from 10 to 1130 from September 17th.

It'll be every Thursday until December.

Third, and then that's following Sunday, December 6th, we have a performance, people get to wear purple, that's the color for dementia, and we come together as a choir.

So we're kind of like creating this little mini community, you know, get to know each other.

So the singing, yes, is fun, but it's also a lot of fun.

right and so we're probably not knowing Christy we're gonna be horsing around having some fun some chaos and then we have a sort of group that will come together to then perform on December 6th so anybody's interested yeah like I said they come

August 20th, or they call me at the 608-548-3954 number and let me know that you're interested.

But I really want to appreciate all the other church communities that we talked to and other people that we've talked to that have kind of, you know, sponsored it.

I would say Park and Rec, you know, Jodi and Jenna over at the Community Center really are the ones who said you should make this happen.

Maybe the gym isn't the best place to sing, but they really got us going and

got the flyers out and stuff like that.

So, um, yeah, the fun, the fun begins August and September.

Yeah.

So you're looking for people with dementia, caregivers, um, you

know, we're looking for anybody wanting to sing and have fun.

So there's no prerequisite there.

Right.

And so the idea is Mary didn't get to speak to it, but there's something called the giving voice choir kind of method.

They have a way of setting up the music.

So it's,

easy, you don't have to have strong memory to remember the music.

We'll have it right there.

You'll get this binder of the music that you get to take home and practice singing the shower if you want to.

Some of us might need more practice than others, but part of the giving voice thing is that it's paired up.

So I might be paired with Christie.

We're singing together.

I don't have to worry as much because I have sort of the singing buddy next

to

me.

We have a partner.

So we'll have partners together.

It can be people with dementia.

It could be the caregivers.

And we also just need a lot of community volunteers to kind of fill out.

So this is not a program that you would see at a nursing home.

This is for people in early stage.

They might have something called mild cognitive impairment, which is not quite dementia.

They might have some form of dementia.

We're never going to ask.

We're not going to talk about it.

We're going to respect people's privacy.

So I'm not going to be doing any of my talks about dementia, but there will be some training for volunteers.

So with it, if somebody's willing to volunteer,

come some training that we can talk about.

But then we just are there to have fun and bond together as a community.

And I'd also like to just encourage people to consider volunteering.

Just simply do things like, oh, you can hand out the information.

You can help set up a coffee time.

You can make some cookies or bars or bring a cheese plate or whatever.

You know, just come.

participate sit down relax enjoy meeting people and and getting to know something and and doing something that's part of a really good cause

no pressure and just

no no and it's it's just something where you can relax and enjoy it you don't have to think oh my gosh we got to get this right because we're going on Broadway well we're not going on Broadway you know we we are doing this it's

It's for the joy of it.

It's for the fun of being part of a group.

It's that feeling of usefulness and togetherness and being a part of something bigger than just you.

What's the playlist like now?

It's going to be a December concert.

So is it holiday related music or have you just made the decision here, Kristi?

Well, I think it's going to be a little bit of everything.

But generally,

What I have seen in choirs like this is, you know, they stick with old standards, things that most people are very familiar with and know.

You are my sunshine.

Let me call you sweetheart.

Some of those kinds of things.

Christmas music is, you know, of course, that's the season.

So,

You're going to try and add some of that in.

Hymns are very popular and they're well known by most people.

You know, I don't know about you, but I can remember songs that I learned when I was in grade school.

For sure.

And you know, one of them is the turkey song.

the turkey song.

Yeah.

Would you care to sing that for us or?

Well, not really.

I was really hoping.

I was really hoping because now I want to know

what a turkey song is.

It really is a cute little song, but my sister and I, to this day, sing this every year on Thanksgiving.

If I have to call her, I'll call her and we sing it on the phone.

Yeah, you can do that.

But my, my nephews look at us and go, oh, my whole ladies

are at it

again.

You know, because

But it's there.

That's back there in your memory bank and it's not going away anytime soon.

So that's what we're counting on.

We're counting on those memories and those songs that are in your memory.

June would be great.

You know, take me home country roads.

Oh,

yeah, there you go.

Everybody knows that

it's a perfect one.

But you think about, you know, I was associated with older songs.

I was visiting someone in a nursing home not that long ago and I'm walking down the hall and I hear the Rolling Stones just blasting

from,

but then I got to think about it.

Well, the Rolling Stones are like 80 years old.

So I guess it makes sense, right?

Right.

We forget that like ACDC is now like an old person.

Right.

Right.

And we used to say that in the nursing home when I.

there is is it's really the music people when they're in high school that for some reason is the time that you're that your brain really remembers right

and so

I can find myself a song playing I don't remember the title of the song but I'll start humming along and I'll know the words will come to me right yeah his music is so encoded in our brain with things I do want to also honor the people that are helping us do this so when we did the grant I

Southwest partners stepped up and is our fiscal agent.

So they're holding the grants so that we can make sure to give money to the people that are really working hard to make this happen.

So kudos to them.

to kind of take us because we couldn't do it.

The ADRC cannot hold a grant.

We're in a government agency.

But this is kind of held by the Aging and Disability Resource Center.

I know we talk a lot here on radio.

But it's due to the ADRC and Southwest partners coming together that the rest of us can have fun and have a party.

So I love one of the sayings on our flyer here.

It says, no pressure, no auditions, just music, smiles, and good company.

And I think that's really what we're going for is

It's just a time to be together.

And so like Chrissy said, you can be a volunteer and just hang out with us and we won't notice whether you're on key or not.

We need

someone to just sit in the audience and critique.

We need them to say, oh, well, you guys need to shuffle this way or you need to do that way.

But that song doesn't sound quite up to snuff.

And I think it's, I'm really looking forward to working with Armi Ventis.

I hope I'm pronouncing her last name.

I met her because we do a spark program, which is an arts engagement program over in Prairie to Sheen.

So there I'm working specifically with People Dementia and their caregivers in a nature center setting, and we have a lot of fun there and laughs.

And so I had met her there as a music therapist, and I think she really has a joy.

I wonder, you know, my suspect, she'll bring in other instruments than the keep,

keyboard because she has an amazing, I'm going to have to show you this.

It looks like a tambourine, but it sounds like the ocean.

It's like, I would want this to somebody to do this every day before I go to sleep.

So she'll have some amazing sort of, I think, ways to bring people out and new ways of doing music.

So I think that's part of it.

And then Mary Ewing has been very supportive as the pianist.

Yeah.

August 28th, the single long open house.

You've got some other things going on here.

You like to talk about as well.

Yeah, because I think the idea that I hope people are getting, uh, anytime they talk is that, you know, it's good for us.

We know that we're hired wire to be social, even if we're a shy, you know, person like Christie, we still need people.

And so, um, there, we have the men shed, which is sort of for men who might be feeling lonely or isolated.

They can come out to the Lloyd community center.

Wonderful group of people at Lloyd community.

I love being their partners.

And that's every second Wednesday.

So the next one is August 12th.

Paul Pash of the Wheels of Time is going to come and talk about what he does.

We had Steve Koltstadt last time.

We've had used to start us out last March.

And that has been a great response.

I think one of the best things, though, is we get lunch together after we have this great talk.

It's more of a discussion than a presentation.

We've had some really good presenters.

We had the canine unit from the Sheriff's Department.

So we have this great discussion on the women get out of the way so the men can just talk, you know, they have time to talk.

And then we have a meal together.

And I can tell you the meat comes from South Wales and Casanova.

It is really good.

So part of it is just, you know, the fellowship over a meal too.

But really interesting group of people.

It's a real mix of people from different backgrounds.

that come there.

It's not just farmers or people from Lloyd.

It's from people from all around that come.

People can get transportation from the ADRC.

need to register for that.

So just like for the choir, we prefer that we know how many people to buy cookies for, also at the men's shed because we're having a meal.

So there people call the ADRC at 608-647-4616 to pre-register for that, and that will be on August 12th.

The other thing is, you know me, I love to talk about the brain and things that happen to it, and if you've ever been on the YouTube and googled dementia, you will come across somebody named Tipa Snow.

She's kind of hysterical.

She's a blend between like a Giro neurologist.

She's, you know, a neurologist and a stand-up comedian at the same time.

She just really knows how to speak to the condition of the over a hundred different diseases that we happen to put under the label dementia.

But there's over a hundred now that they've identified.

And it's just all different ways that our brains can happen over aging.

But if you really want to know what is it,

How does it change in stages?

You know, why does Alzheimer's can last 20 years?

Lewy body can last like seven years.

What are the different changes?

How does the different stages, but...

But her whole goal is, don't think about what people are losing, think about what people still retrain, right?

If they're still people who like to keep busy, if they're people who like to be mellow, you know, we need to remember that these are people first and that things change over time.

So there's a class that she created called Getting to Know Dementia.

It's a six week class and we'll be doing that August 3rd through September 21st at the Viola Methodist Church in Viola from two to four on Monday.

So if folks want to join me there, you don't have to attend every class.

But again, they can register at the 608-548-3954.

And there's things like, what are the brain changes and shifts that happen in ability?

Looking at progression and seeing more than loss.

That's what she calls her gems, right?

We think of people as gems.

And then new skills and

building a support team.

So that's happening Mondays in Viola.

And so that'll be, again, people can register with me if they're interested.

But it's happening Mondays in August and September.

Then if people really like to get science nerdy like I do, the Alzheimer's Disease and Research Center, what I call the other ADRC, has some great people.

Nate Chin is a primary doctor there.

They do a lot of research.

And there's a lot.

There is, you guys, I cannot tell you how much has been happening recently.

So there's like, it's what's next in Alzheimer's detection and treatment?

People might want to know, what is this new blood test that can detect amyloid?

How does that fit?

How do I, how do these treatments and identification?

And so that's happening Friday, September 11th.

People can,

register online.

They can listen from the comfort of their own home.

It's a webinar, but it's also going to be in person at the Crossing Rivers Hospital.

But I would highly recommend, if you're really curious about the science, these people are the scientists from UW Madison that are known throughout the world for the work they do.

So that's September 11th.

They can call me if they have questions.

And then the last thing is that we know that caregivers need support, right?

When you're helping somebody through later life and we all change with aging, we know that it's hard.

I always say that aging is not for the faint of heart.

But that also, if you're caring for somebody that gets a disease that kind of changes the way they perceive the world, changes the way they operate in the world, this person that you knew so long is suddenly acting different, whether it's a parent or you're a spouse or just a neighbor, a good friend, then you want to get some support because it takes a village, no one person.

can do it alone.

So we have a new caregiver support group in Perry-Dashin at the library there starting next Wednesday, August 5th.

at 10 a.m.

in the prairie de sheen library and so there's a support group here in russian center for caregivers to work group it's an awesome group i think we have a mix of men and women a really strong group and that's on fourth tuesdays but if you're closer to prairie de sheen you can come to the prairie de sheen on first wednesdays starting august 5th

You don't have to be a resident of that county, Crawford County.

No, I will accept people.

Actually, when I work in Prairie Dachine, we have a lot of people come over from Iowa.

They cross the bridge and they see us.

And if I can put a plug too, if you're anywhere in that area and you're willing to drive to Prairie Dachine, you can cross the Mississippi and go to this Driftless Area Wetland Center.

It's a nature center and we do our spark program there.

And that's third Thursdays.

And that is just a great group of people.

Try on fur coats.

We will look at skink and tanks.

We will make you smell flowers.

It's a really interesting way of using nature as a way to get people to talk in no matter what condition you have.

I mean, you have to check your calendar every day to figure out

where you're going.

I know.

Well, I always try to make time for you and Christy, but, um, yeah, I like to stay busy as my husband will tell you, I'm not retiring anytime soon.

I guess.

Yeah.

Boy, Christy, you're really looking forward to the, the upcoming harmony and hope choir.

I'm

sure I really am.

I, you know, I, I think that this is a really good thing and it's a necessary thing for a lot of people.

You know, so many people just feel disconnected from

the community around them.

Either by circumstance or because they're feeling depressed or hopeless or whatever.

If you're singing a song that makes you happy, you can't be depressed at the same time.

Very true.

Maybe when you get all practiced up and everything, we'll have to feature a song from the choir on the morning show.

If we could come sing for you, that'd be standing in the back

or we'll come there.

Sounds good.

Thanks.

And I just want to say, if anybody has any questions or if there's a small group, Christina are trying to get out, we're going to go see the ministerial association.

We're going to try and visit some churches, visit some service organizations like the lions and the quantities and anybody that will have us that want to hear more about this choir so they can help their membership.

maybe join or they want to be a future sponsor in 2027 if there's people interested in hearing more about it and how they can be in the future, they can always call me at 608-548-3954 and we will come and talk to you about this.

Wonderful.

Thanks for coming in ladies.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Kristi Thompson who is volunteering with the Harmony Hope Choir and also Pam Colberg, a regular guest on our morning show, dementia care specialist with ADRC of Eagle Country.

you

On our morning show today, we're going to be talking about the Giving Voice Choir here on WRC on some other topics.

Pam Colberg, dementia care specialist with ADRC of Eagle Country, serving Crawford in Richland Counties is our guest.

Later on, Christy Thompson will be here talking about how she's involved as a volunteer.

And we also have a guest on the phone today, Mary Leonard, co-founder of the Giving Voice Choirs.

Well Pam, first of all, good morning to you.

Hey, good morning to you.

Hope you're doing well.

We are doing awesome.

So you came to me with this idea, you know, for this coming to Richel Center probably over a year ago.

Right.

I think it was September.

I went to a conference and I happened to talk to Mary and Kathy at a table and was like,

musical choir, you know, Richland County has the longest running band, you know, at the high school.

It has the concert association.

It has the...

performing arts council.

I was like, we are music, right?

We have community choirs.

So I was like, what a great place to have music that includes people with dementia because we know music is good for your brain.

But we also just want people to feel welcome to come out in the community, no matter what condition they're dealing with.

So you kind of had just a by chance meeting with Mary initially, didn't you?

Yeah.

Was that the hope and light?

conference, which is coming again in about two weeks, it's a conference for people with dementia and their caregivers to kind of give them voice.

So when I saw this choir that said give voice choir, I was like, that's the direction I want to go is I really want to honor the people that are, you know, kind of dealing with a disease that they didn't ask for and give them and I love, you know, it's funny, I don't sing well.

but I like singing, like many of us, so I could go and mouth the words and everybody else could sound good, right?

We all did that in middle school,

right?

Lip-sync.

Yes, there we go.

How about in the car?

Do you sing when you're driving down the road?

Oh,

only when, yeah, when playing a song.

Yeah, I'm learning country music.

I,

you know.

Joining us by phone today from Minnesota is Mary Leonard.

Good morning, Mary.

Good morning, Bill and Pam.

Good to have you on the radio with us.

Absolutely.

So

tell

us a little bit about this, how it all began, when it all began.

Sure.

Well, it began in 2014.

A friend and I over a glass of wine, she had arts background and I had previously been the executive director of the Alzheimer's Association in Minnesota, North Dakota.

We decided we wanted to work together and do something different.

And one day across our desk,

came this picture of a woman, Julie Andrews, dancing across the Alps.

And the article was about people with Alzheimer's who sang, who benefited from singing familiar music.

And it was a study out of Helsinki, Finland, that said when people sang with their care partner over a period of time, they had all these benefits.

And so this research was just coming out about how

singing was like a fireworks for the brain like it would improved memory and cognition and balanced emotion and we said well what if we start a choir and that's exactly what we did we're sort of like the little rascals like hey let's come on Sparky let's start a choir and that's exactly what we did in 2014 we we got some initial funding and we didn't know if it was going to work

But we formed a partnership with the McPhail Music Center here in Minneapolis.

And we had about 24 people show up to our first rehearsal.

And I knew in the first 15 minutes that it was something special.

And it was special because the people with dementia who were experiencing a thousand different subtractions in their lives

We're all of a sudden able to do something and be in community and belong and have something to look forward to every week.

And it just worked.

How rewarding is it to know that it's expanded?

It's branched out.

It's not just something in your backyard.

Exactly.

We started with one choir in 2014.

We now have almost 80 around the country, including Canada and Australia.

We developed a toolkit after our first year of doing this work, and that toolkit has been downloaded and used across the world to start these dementia-friendly courses, just like the one we're starting in Richmond Center.

Yeah, we can't wait.

And it sounds like Pam, you've had a pretty good response to it so far.

Yeah, we've been putting flyers around.

I'm really excited about it.

I think people love music.

I was thinking that I used to like to look on YouTube and it said, your brain on music and all areas of the brain light up compared to like thinking.

if you think about something and it's one area, but here it lights up all areas.

So I couldn't think of something more joyful to do.

And then once Christy Thompson tracked me down from some, you know, flyer had somewhere and we started having a lot of fun scheming for it, then, then I thought this is a go.

We got to make it happen.

Yeah.

And Mary, you've had some, some grants that are available to communities as well, haven't you?

Right.

In the last year, we started what we call the Rule Initiative and it's in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

So instead of letting people sort of find us, we actually started a program where we go out to rule communities and we offer seed grants of $5,000 and provide technical assistance and support and ideas and planning and help rule choirs get started.

And we started five

in Wisconsin last year and we're in the process of starting four more this fall.

I'm sure you've seen lots of success in some stories behind the scenes but I can't help but think about the the documentary they did with Glenn Campbell and how amazing that was and you know music was like the last thing that he remembered.

Yes he's a really good example of someone who

was able to hold on to that music part of the brain and perform and enjoy music and have it be a big part of the end of his life.

And that's what we see with singing in our choir is people are able to sing often until the very later stages of the disease and really enjoy it.

And also it's really important for the caregiver of the person with dementia or cognitive changes to be part of that choir as well.

So we're building that community, that coupling, where they get to do something together, where they enjoy it.

It hits a lot of different boxes as far as being a really strong project for people to belong to.

And people, you know, of all abilities, right, in the choirs?

You do not have to know how to sing.

You don't have to know how to read music.

You can come home.

You can volunteer and help with our cookie and coffee time.

We try to create a very friendly community environment where everyone feels welcome and that they belong.

Slap your leg in time, whatever it takes, right, Pam?

Yes, it does.

Yeah, we're gonna do some movement, she said also, like a warm-up with movement, and that's where you get me, music and dancing.

I was just thinking of the Project Music and Memories, Mary, where there was a, if anybody's ever worked in a nursing home around here, they know about that program where they would give people little iPods and help them listen to the music when they were about in their 20s, and that that would help people kind of do, guide them towards a shower or whatever it was, and the idea was

that music lights up the brain.

And so there's a famous video about Henry, a guy who they didn't think could talk, didn't talk for years.

But when they played music and a song he knew, he started singing.

So here he didn't talk, he didn't speak, but he could sing words, especially from songs that he knew.

And so, yeah, we all know the power of music.

If you've listened at all to WRCO, you know that.

An important part of our project, Phil, too, is to have a community concert.

So after rehearsing for 10 to 12 weeks, this group of people that come together sing for family and friends in a community setting, and you get to see the power of that music and how it transforms people's lives, and especially those with dementia, by being part of this choir.

So I know Pam will have a lot of information about that concert when the time comes, but it's a really powerful way to see what's possible with living with dementia and living well with dementia.

That's an awesome program, Mary, and about goals for the future.

I don't think you ever saw expanding to like 80 choirs.

Are you shooting for more here in the next few years?

We're doing a capacity campaign right now and hope to get to 250 and by 2030.

So yes, we call it global domination of dementia-friendly choirs.

We hope to have one in every community because we know there are people living at home with dementia across our country and they're isolated and they're living in a very

with a very difficult diagnosis.

And here's a chance to come out and experience joy, music, fun, other, you know, be with other people in a very safe and welcoming setting.

What makes you proudest to be a part of this, Mary?

Oh gosh, it's people like Pam and these champions that see this choir and say, we're going to do that here.

And then they make it happen.

I'm so proud of all the people that start these choirs.

It's amazing.

And it'll be happening in Richland center.

Anything else you want to ask Mary, Pam?

No, I'm, I'm pressed.

I didn't know you're part of the Alzheimer's Association.

So that was super cool

to hear.

But yeah, yeah.

And Mary's going to come visit us during our open house if folks want to meet her or maybe during our performance in December.

So, um, yeah, there'll be a chance to meet Mary when she comes to good old rich and center.

Looking forward to

it.

Looking

forward to it.

All right, Mary, thanks for joining us on the morning show.

Thank you, Phil.

Bye, Pam.

Bye.

We'll talk to you later.

Mary Leonard, co-founder of the Giving Voices Choirs and we'll be right back after this time out.

Thanks to Mary Leonard for being our guest on the first part of the morning show today.

Pam Colberg returns with us to talk about it.

Just sounds like a really groovy thing here and that people are fired up about and a good response.

And I'm just happy it can bring it to Richland Center, Pam.

Yeah.

Well, what's exciting is that we're going to bring up Christy Thompson here, my queen of chaos here, that has gone around tracking people down.

And I know people have a busy summer and a lot of churches are undergoing changes.

And we were like, where are we going to perform?

Performing arts centers under construction, all these different places.

So we're getting a little worried there that we had a place to go.

And a couple churches just offered recently.

I really want to appreciate people's willingness to reach out and offer some places.

We ended up going with the Grace Community Church.

They're all on one level.

They're very dementia-friendly space, and they've been super supportive.

So this is the Grace Community Church that's out on Highway AA near the fairgrounds.

So they'll be hosting us.

We'll be doing an open house there on August 20th.

10 for people want to come and sing along a little doesn't mean they have to commit to the choir of you know we won't put any ankle bracelet I'm on or anything but they can come and sing along see what it's about see the space meet me meet Christy meet Mary hopefully and see what

kind of what we're doing.

So that's August 20th, but then we start September 17th.

We run through December, and then December 6th, that Sunday, around 1.30, we'll be at the Grace Community Church doing our performance.

So it's a chance to form community.

You know me, I love the word community.

We'll do this forming a community together.

And we have some awesome people with us.

We have a young music therapist named Aubrey Ventes.

She comes out of Grant County, and she'll be our music director.

So I'm sure she's going to have a lot of interesting things because she's a music therapist in addition to the music director.

Mary Ewing will be our pianist, our accompanist doing the music.

And then we also have support from Joanne Amell who's like a pianist as well.

If you know Joanne Amell, you know she's a power to be reckoned with and she'll be helping support us in having this happen.

So we just have a really interesting team of people who came together and got this

going.

Christy, you heard us on the morning show one day and somehow got motivated,

I understand.

I did.

I was involved with a choir like this in Eau Claire.

My friend Joan had received a cancer diagnosis and basically was dying of cancer.

And she was involved with this choir and we would come home from those practices and she would say, this is the hour and a half a week where I feel normal.

And so then we would sit down and a lot of times after we had been there, she was talking about things that had been weighing on her mind.

How soon was she gonna die?

Was it gonna be painful, blah, blah, blah, blah, all of these things.

So in a way, it was kind of therapy for her.

And I think of it that way because there were other people in that choir as well who,

They didn't have dementia.

They didn't have memory problems.

But I can remember sitting and talking to a fellow who had arthritis.

And I said, well, how did you get here?

And he says, well, my wife drugged my ass here.

And he said, but you know, he says, this has been good for me.

He said, I realized I can sit here and I can sing.

And I'm not thinking one bit about how much I hurt.

I'm just only able to focus on that band width that involves music and the singing.

So, you know, your brain gets this little mini-vacation because it can't focus on anything except that music.

So I think that would be a really good thing for people to remember.

It's not just for dementia, although that's the main purpose.

But it's really

It's good for your brain.

It's good for your soul.

You're not dwelling on the physical pain or the anguish or anything