Pop singer loves video of seniors groovin’ to her tunes
When local paramedic Adam Loria displayed his dance and lip-sync skills in a video with Calgary seniors, he had no idea he’d be getting a shout out from one of the biggest pop stars around.
“This just made my day!” Meghan Trainor tweeted in response to an Alberta Health Services post of Loria and the seniors dancing to her song No Excuses.
“Can’t stop watching it. Best dance moves!” she said while retweeting the video, which featured Loria dancing with seniors and staff at the Whitehorn Village Retirement Community. The video garnered more than 13,000 views by Thursday afternoon.
“It was really neat to see it ... acknowledged by the artist herself,” said Loria, who is the public education officer and a spokesman for local EMS.
The seniors were also enjoying the nod from the pop star.
“(The residents are) really excited. They know who Meghan Trainor is, so they’re so happy,” said Claudia Castanaza, a recreation aid at Whitehorn Village who started working on an original lip-synching video to the song a month ago.
That original video featured special appearances by Bret (The Hitman) Hart, Mayor Naheed Nenshi and Loria.
But Loria, who recorded his original scene during the facility’s exercise hour, asked to tape another full-length music video just for fun with, “an EMS twist.”
“From an EMS perspective, we respond to calls to that location (Whitehorn Village) frequently,” Loria said.
“It (the video) is another way for me to engage with them on a nonemergency, fun level.”
As a public education officer, Loria is responsible for interacting and engaging with all age groups in the community, focusing on safety and injury prevention. He said EMS is always trying to dig its roots into the community.
“Sometimes we’re involved in negative stories, so this was a chance to be involved in a positive story,” he said.
Castanaza started creating lipsync music videos with the residents four years ago after seeing a facility in B.C. doing similar projects.
Whitehorn Village’s video collection of lip synching also includes Trainor’s Dear Future Husband, Abba’s Dancing Queen and Taylor Swift’s Shake it Off.
“I try to find something for them that doesn’t have so many bad words,” said Castanaza, who adds that the residents love the video program.
“They ask me, ‘When’s the next video coming up?’ or ‘ What (song ) are we doing next?’”
While the program can be particularly challenging and timeconsuming for residents with Alzheimer’s or dementia, Castanaza noted it provides good stimulation for the mind.
“I practise (the chorus) with them a lot and they remember it when they hear it,” she said.
For Loria, the video shoot was a rewarding experience. “They loved it, I loved it,” he said. Loria also praised the residents’ dance moves and jokingly said: “Quite frankly, I know for a fact, some of those ladies were holding back.”