Category: News and Updates

Today, Mindful Companions and GSMST’s Tri-M join together at Laurel Grove to help the seniors make clay pot bird baths.

Allison and Andrew (left) play nostalgic music for the seniors. Danny (right) plays The Four Seasons by Vivaldi.

Allison Wong and Andrew Guo (middle) perform nostalgic songs such as “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” by Paul Anka and “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley. Volunteers (left) help with setting up the crafting activities.

Student volunteers interact with seniors to make lucky jars. Seniors can decorate a jar with stickers, gold coins, and other decorations to reflect on what makes them thankful for this St. Patrick’s holiday. Afterward, seniors can take a photo and place it in their jar so that this event will forever stay in their hearts and memories.

Andrew helps a senior make his lucky jar.

Shown above are all the volunteers from GSMST’s Tri-M Music Honor Society and National Honor Society who helped out at this event.

Yesterday afternoon, we visited Oaks at Snellville to perform some string quartet music and host a DIY flowers arts and crafts session. It was our first time visiting, and we really enjoyed getting to meet and talk with all of the seniors who came to our session. We started off by playing a familiar, heartwarming song “Can’t Help Falling in Love,” by Elvis Presley, which was selected by Allison Wong, our Georgia chapter’s Vice President. Thanks to Allison, we started off on a great note, as we saw some of the seniors’ faces light up in recognition of the familiar tune.

Allison and I then helped to facilitate the DIY flower making activity using multicolored pipe cleaners, pom poms, and wooden dowels for some of the flower stems. We had already prepared samples of different types of flowers beforehand, and asked them which one they would like to make.

The daisy flowers (pictured above) were a popular choice. We went around and let each senior pick a color of their choice from the selection of pipe cleaners, a dark green pipe cleaner for the stem, and a pom pom. While simple, this one was a joy for all.

At the same time, Nathan and Calvin, our Co-Vice President and President of the Georgia Chapter, played a selection of duets and concertos. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” was a favorite amongst the seniors. While they played, we continued to make other varieties of flowers, such as tulips and multicolored, four loop flowers.

To conclude, we performed “Canon” on our violins and thanked everyone for coming. When asked about how the session went by workers at Oaks at Snellville, the seniors said “We all had a good time.” It was exciting to hear that they had all enjoyed the event and see them smiling as they took their newly made flowers home. We thank Oaks at Snellville, and Crystal, the wonderful lifestyle director at Oaks at Snellville, for getting in touch with Allison and helping set up this event. We are looking forward to going back soon!

Student musicians from GSMST performance holiday music for seniors at A.G. Rhodes,  Wesley Woods facility

Dec 13, 2022 — Jean provided a series of Zoom concerts and weekly mindfulness lessons for residents in numerous nursing homes and assisted living communities.

link to the article: https://www.ajc.com/inspire/teen-has-been-a-companion-to-seniors-during-pandemic/U3C4PNVYD5HQZB7JIJTTMBNKX4/

We held an online concert for the seniors for Holiday!

Playing Music for the Grandparents day.

We held the weekly online mindfulness sessions for seniors from Aug 2020 to help the sessions to learn and practice mindfulness in their day to day life and fight the health concerns resulting from the isolation due to the pandemic.