Online karaoke serving as an outlet
WOONSOCKET – When you are stuck in the house sheltering from the coronavirus, Sylvia Roark can tell you a bit of online karaoke can go a long way in cheering you up.
Roark, who celebrated her 84 birthday on Feb. 29, has been staying at home at Chateau Clare Apartments at 16 Greene St. due to her age and some preexisting health conditions since the coronavirus crisis began.
So it was with more than a little interest that Roark tuned in on Facebook video Saturday night to listen to her granddaughter Candice Larson of Woonsocket put up a karaoke show for all of her friends.
Larson, 33, put on the show to help folks get past all their worries about the crisis and even laugh a bit and maybe dance.
Roark said that is just what she felt like doing as she watched the impromptu show.
“It was fun, everybody was having fun,” Roark said while describing the feedback Larson got from the folks tuning in.
She had a set list of about ten songs and even did a few requests during the quarantine karaoke offering on her Facebook page from 8 to 9 p.m. on Saturday.
The project went so well, Larson, a part-time karaoke singer and building department secretary at Lincoln Town Hall, plans to put it on again each Saturday night as the crisis continues.
“She’s a good kid,” Roark said of her granddaughter. “She is always there to help anyone, she is a good hearted person,” she said. “Even with times the way they are, she is a good hearted kid,” Roark said.
Larson explained that she is a karaoke DJ part-time but hasn’t been doing any gigs due to the ongoing coronavirus shutdown.
She decided to put on her Facebook show as a way “to entertain people and have some fun.”
The set up was pretty basic, she noted. “I’m on my living room couch and I put my laptop in front of me,” she said.
“It was just an hour of karaoke and fun and I even had some lights set up behind me,” she said.
“I’m not going to be appearing on American Idol, but I have fun,” she added.
Her list of songs included “Hold On,” by Wilson Phillips, a song she felt would be good to wrap up the show with as a positive message given the crisis, and also “Honey, I’m Home,” by Shania Twain.
“I thought that was kind of cheeky because we’re all at home,” Larson said.
Larson said she has been going to work part-time at Lincoln Town Hall as a result of the town’s move to reduce the number of people in the building at any given time.
“They are trying to limit everyone from being exposed and have just half the people working in the building at any one time,” she noted.
It was her worries for the at-risk people like her grandmother that got Larson thinking about quarantine karaoke.
“It’s just a source of entertainment and just something I can do to help change people’s minds and give them something to do,” she said.
The reaction from those tuning in on her Facebook page was very appreciative, she noted.
“They all said it was just fun and some sent me a song request,” she said.
Larson is already working on her set list for this coming Saturday.
“I’m planning on doing it every Saturday while we are stuck in this situation. It’s just to have some fun and give people something fun to do on Saturday night,” she said.
“If we can’t be together, we can be together online,” Larson said.
Her grandmother said the show is just another example of how people are trying to help each other during the coronavirus shutdown.
One of her neighbors at Chateau Clare, Lucille Gallant, is another. Gallant has been making a grocery run to Stop & Shop at 6 a.m. on a regular basis and when she goes, she picks up things for Roark and about six others.
“Some of the other ladies are in their 90s and she picks up whatever we need and puts it in a cart here and goes floor to floor to drop it off to us,” she said.
“She doesn’t charge anything, she does it out of the goodness of her heart,” Roark said. “There are some nice people in this world and she’s great,” she said.
Her own family is pretty great, too, Roark said, while pointing to Larson’s karaoke and her daughter, Angela’s work with Angela’s niece, Kayla, 12, to help out at the Ronald McDonald House with baking on the first Saturday of every month.
“When this crisis started, that stopped everything,” Roark said while noting the Ronald McDonald House volunteering also had to be put on hold.
Her daughter, Judy, has been making homemade masks for everyone since that was recommended as one of the precautions people can take and Roark said she has been wearing the one Judy gave her.
She’s also following her family’s advice to stay home.
“I’m staying in the house, I’m quarantining myself and if more people did that then there would be less deaths,” Roark said.
“It is a crazy time and scary and I feel so bad for the doctors and nurses, the police and firefighters who have to be out there helping everyone,” she said.
“It’s bad out there and then they have to go home to their own families after they help all these people,” Roark said.