Singing students grace Drew’s Place

Home Features Singing students grace Drew’s Place

A small group of Hillsdale College students goes to Drew’s Place, a local retirement home, every Sunday afternoon to lead the residents in singing hymns.
The group was originally started by the GOAL program and is currently run by junior Marie Landskroener. The group meets from 1:30 to 2:00 p.m. on Sundays.
Although the group has been active for years, its numbers are small.
“Usually there only two or three of us, which isn’t very many, and I would like to see a lot more come,” said Landskroener. “Last week there were five of us, which is a great number, and there were a lot of residents out.”
Around 15 to 20 residents attend each week, according to Landskroener.
“The residents love it,” she said. “It’s so cute. Every time they thank us; every time they say ‘come back.’”
However, participants say it provides more than just entertainment.
“Music is not something that’s absolutely necessary in our lives,” senior Audrey Southgate said. “It’s an added blessing, an added gift. They’re well-fed and well-cared-for in other ways, and that’s really great, but if we can have something else to bring joy, in this case praising our Savior together, that’s a really good thing.”
Southgate said she has been involved with the program since her freshman year and considers it the highlight of her week.
“I get joy out of it,” freshman Quinn Reichard said. “Maybe it’s selfish of me to say I get joy out of it, but when you’re dedicating your time to others, you get a certain sense of purpose out of that.”
Reichard has only attended for a few weeks, but is already a hit with the residents, who begged him to play a piano solo before he left. He says that having the opportunity to create beauty is what makes volunteering a blessing.
“I’m not trying to say that what we do here is particularly beautiful,” he said, “but it’s a little something at least. It gives them a chance to hear a little something.”
Others find importance in the work in other places.
“I think that it’s important for communities to have an exchange between young people and older people, for younger people to learn from older people, and for older people to see younger generations growing up in the church,” Southgate said.
She said singing hymns is important to her, as well.
“It’s really encouraging for me to see people who have lived their lives in Christ, to see how they still remember the hymns,” she said. “Singing hymns is one of the ways that we praise God, perhaps one of the most tangible ways we praise God. There’s something really unifying about that.”
Singing, however, is just as important to the residents as it is to the students.
“I was thinking today about how a lot of these people are here, and this is the last place they’re ever going to be in their lives, and just how comforting it must be to hear — each hymn has a message to it — just to hear that message,” said Landskroener. “And especially just to see young people liven up the place, even if it’s just two or three of us.”
The group desires to increase its numbers.
“I think the more the merrier, really,” Reichard said.“We need more singers. It brings joy to the old folks when they have a lot of young faces to look at.”
Southgate says she hopes the group will continue to foster relationships between the college and the surrounding community.
“College is a very self-centered stage of life, because we’re so independent,” she said. “I think it’s good to see people who are very dependent on help that also have a lot to give. It’s only natural for college students to become isolated in a bubble, but this is a good way of branching out a little bit.”
Landskroener said she wants to see the group become a major part of the GOAL program.
“I hope that when freshmen come in they hear there’s orchestra, there’s choir, and there’s also this volunteer program,” she said. “I hope to make it a regular thing for many people.”
For more information about joining the group, contact Landskroener at mlandskroener@hillsdale.edu.