Singalong at apartments opens residents’ world to music
Singing helped Danielle Williams end a bad day on a positive note.
Williams, 41, had spent much of Thursday “stressing out about little things,” she said, at her home at Park West Court Apartments, a private Hilltop facility for adults with developmental disabilities. But during the Caring a Tune program in the facility’s outdoor courtyard that evening, Williams’ mood brightened considerably as she sang “Puff the Magic Dragon” and the theme from the Scooby-Doo cartoon series (“ScoobyDoo, Where Are You?”).
As other residents nodded their heads and tapped their feet to the beat, Williams wore a huge smile.
“It felt good because it gave me a chance to relax and ignore things that were bothering me,” she said afterward. “This gives me a chance to just get out of the house and interact with other people.”
Caring a Tune was introduced two years ago by Nick Spyker, who at the time was the Park West dietitian.
A musician who frequently played at open-mic nights throughout Columbus, Spyker “thought it was kind of tragic how silent it was sometimes in people’s homes.”
“Some of these people have never seen live music, ever,” he said. “I feel like it’s a natural human right that everyone deserves — so to bring that to them is something special.”
The program, started in the summer of 2015, consisted of Spyker and other area musicians he recruited playing every other month (all musicians volunteer their time).
Spyker, 27, left Columbus in July 2016 for a job in San Antonio, Texas. Fellow musician Brian Griffin (stage name: Brian Clash), who had been participating in the program, stepped up to keep it going.
“It’s a joyful thing to be part of,” Griffin said.
Since then, the program has evolved into part concert and part singalong.
Becky Miller, a speech therapist at Park West, regularly attends the program and sometimes sings. When she noticed some residents singing along in their seats, she began offering them the microphone.
“The first time I did it, we had one or two sing,” Miller said. “By the third time, we had 10 individuals. They loved it. It’s the best thing I do here.”
On Thursday evening, a group of more than 40 residents gathered, with Griffin first offering a few songs. Then he opened the microphone to residents.
About a dozen participated, singing tunes ranging from “You Are My Sunshine” and “Twist and Shout” to “The Wheels on the Bus.”
After Williams’ performance, Christopher Melvin took a turn. He launched into the Toby Keith song “American Soldier” and was soon fully immersed, turning his Detroit Red Wings baseball hat backward and pointing to the sky several times.
“I was kind of nervous at first, but I loved doing that; it was very fun,” said Melvin, 28. “And to sing that to the troops meant everything to me, because I’m very patriotic.”
Also that evening, Spyker made a surprise appearance — his first since leaving Ohio. In town for a friend’s wedding, he made sure to stop by Park West, where he played a few songs.
“I was so happy to get here and see that it is continuing,” he said. “It looks like Brian is doing a great job.”
Miller and Spyker both said one of their favorite memories from the program was one of a largely deaf man who would become “so excited, so ecstatic” upon feeling the music’s vibrations.
“Sometimes special things like that happen,” Spyker said.
Like his program predecessor, Griffin feels strongly about the importance of music.
“I think music is one of the purest forms of expression,” he said. “You get to see people who otherwise might be in a shell and how music can open up their world.”
It certainly opened up Williams’ world on Thursday.
After the program, she talked about finding a church choir to join, or perhaps singing to nursing-home patients.
“That would give me a chance to have fun and use my voice to maybe make somebody else happy,” she said.
“It could help other people, I think.”
“Some of these people have never seen live music, ever. I feel like it’s a natural human right that everyone deserves — so to bring that to them is something special.”
— Nick Spyker, who introduced the Caring a Tune program at Park West