Prince Albert group sings Lean On Me to support La Loche, Sask.
The original Voices of the North video was viewed more than 80,000 times
Sometimes the only thing you can do is sing.
That's how a group of people in the Prince Albert area are showing support for the people of La Loche, Sask.
Around 30 people gathered in a home at the end of January to record the Bill Withers song Lean On Me. The gathering, organized by the singing group Voices of the North, was posted on Facebook and collected over 80,000 views.
On Sunday, the group gathered even more people for a second take in a local church, this time with the hopes of sending support and possibly financial help to the northern community recovering from the recent tragic shootings.
"We had people from Fond Du Lac there, people from La Ronge again, Pelican Narrows, and the bigger thing for me was not making it a Voices of the North thing, but a community thing," Sheryl Kimbley, with the singing group, said about the weekend gathering.
The group published their new rendition of Lean On Me to YouTube on Saturday.
The recent recording had professional help, and Kimbley said they are hoping to have it for sale by the end of the week. After production costs are covered, the rest of the funds will go to La Loche.
The original recording was a bit more impromptu, with Kimbley putting a post on Facebook calling for people to join in. Kimbley said they chose Lean On Me because it's a song the community could hear "and know that they have Saskatchewan behind them."
"It wasn't professional, we just decided to sing, hoping it would reach some people and it ended up reaching a lot more than we thought," she said.
"All I did was put it on a Facebook post."
The group decided to do a professional copy after they received many requests from people to purchase it, but Kimbley said it's also so the song will stick around as a reminder.
"I am hoping that years from now people will listen to that song driving down the highway and say 'Oh gosh, this was done for La Loche and let's not forget,'" she said.
"When the media dies down over the community of La Loche, we really want them to remember that there are needs in northern Saskatchewan that we are missing the mark and to keep them in our hearts."