When Generations Sing: The Joy of the Intergenerational Jamboree

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It is a quiet weekday morning in a long-term care facility and several residents sleep in their wheelchairs in a common area while a radio or TV plays quietly in the background.  An individual with a guitar and ukulele enters the room and begins to play and sing songs that would be familiar to the individuals sitting nearby. Those sleeping begin to wake up.  Those staring out a window or at a TV begin to turn their heads and begin to engage musically with the individual playing the live music. After a few minutes of singing familiar songs together, the common area begins filling up with a parade of babies and toddlers. Some are walking, holding their caregiver’s hand and others are in infant carriers and strollers. The music shifts to an upbeat “hello” song, and the faces of both the long-term care residents and children beam as they greet one another with a musical hello.   

This might sound difficult to believe! But we are proud to have made this a reality. This scenario has been a weekly highlight for our Intergenerational Jamboree music program participants.  This program started in Spring 2024 as a pilot program through the Laurier Academy of Music and Arts with grant funding provided by Sheridan College’s Centre for Elder Research. Jennifer Stacey, an Early Childhood Music Educator at the Laurier Academy of Music and Arts, and Len McCarthy, a seasoned music therapist in the KW region, first facilitated this pilot program weekly at Luther Village on the Park, on the memory care unit of the long-term facility.  This pilot program was such a success it caught the attention of a resident at The Village at Winston Park. 

In September 2024, we began our 2^nd Intergenerational Jamboree group with the residents of Emma’s Neighbourhood at Winston Park Retirement, which is a unit designed for residents living with memory loss and offers care and recreation programming specifically for those living with Alzheimer’s Disease and other related forms of dementia. This 2^nd Jamboree group was made possible by the generous donation of Lois Bradshaw (a resident in the retirement suites at Winston Park). 

Music and dancing became a regular part of Lois’ home environment, growing up in rural Ontario with limited “entertainment” options. 

When she met and married her husband, Ross, music and dancing became an important part of life for their own family, even though Ross did not grow up in a musical home. In their retirement, Ross and Lois taught line dancing classes in Toronto for class sizes up to 75 people. Now, Lois is a member of the Winston Park choir that her son directs.

“Music is everything,” exclaims Lois, when asked why supporting this new Intergenerational Jamboree program is so important. Lois joyfully observes the Jamboree each week and as members of Emma’s Neighbourhood “come alive with joy and smiles” when they musically engage with a room full of young children. When visiting the group this Fall, I observed the Grandfriends, as they are called, singing the familiar songs and playing on the small percussion instruments shared with the children, their caregivers, and the Jamboree facilitators. The music selected as part of this program is familiar to the Grandfriends and presented in a way that engages and reinforces developmental concepts like highs and lows, ups and downs, and activities of daily life like brushing your teeth, waving hello and goodbye, etc. Occasionally, adult children and spouses of our Grandfriends will attend and participate in the Jamboree group, and one of the spouses mentioned that this Jamboree group is one of the only times he gets to hear his wife’s voice as she sings the familiar songs, but no longer engages in conversation due to the advanced progression of her dementia.

The generous donation by Lois Bradshaw, in dedication to her husband, Ross, will allow this Intergenerational Jamboree program to continue for many years. 

Please contact lama@wlu.ca if you are interested in learning more about this important program or wish to explore the possibility of expanding this program to an additional location in our region.