Hockey team brings iPods, Christmas concert to Yellowknife seniors
The G & G Thunder hockey team paid a visit to the Avens seniors home on Monday afternoon, bearing gifts and bringing their musical talents to the delighted residents.
The team was inspired by a recent CBC story about 53 seniors with dementia sharing a single iPod as part of a music and memory program.
"We were moved by the story and thought it wasn't right that the seniors were all sharing one iPod for their program," says team organizer April Desjarlais, noting that many of the kids had iPods they weren't using.
Desjarlais says the team pooled their iPods, iTunes cards and bottle drive money and brought it all down to the residence. In total, they donated eight iPods, an iPad, $300 in cash and almost $300 in iTunes gift cards to the seniors.
The team's coach says the kids didn't want to just do a simple handover.
"The seniors are really finding something through music and we've got a lot of talented kids on this team outside of hockey, so why don't we go and give them the real gift of music," says coach Shawn Talbot.
The nine- and 10-year-old put on a Christmas concert, with some kids on the team dancing, playing music on different instruments, and following it with a team performance of "O Canada."
Avens' recreation supervisor Kate Drexler accepted the gifts and says she was moved by the youngsters' generosity.
She says since the story, there have also been a number of iPods and headphones donated by members of the community. She says all go towards the music program and bringing the residents the songs, and memories, they love.