On December 8th, over 100 people attended the community open house presentation of “Our Song” held at Resources For Industry (RFI) in Walton, NY. This event was a culmination of several workshops held at The Arc of Delaware County’s (Delarc’s) RFI and Community Living Skills (CLS) in Walton.
The workshops were conducted by Elly Wininger, award winning musician and song writer. Participants created their own music and lyrics and then hosted this open house to share their musical creations. Steve Finkel, Life Coach at Delarc shared: “This program is not just a musical activity, but stresses a foundation of enjoyment and satisfaction that music can bring, especially if it’s your own!” Steve had heard about Elly’s workshops and approached her with the idea of hosting workshops at Delarc, she agreed. Elly said, “Music is transformational”, she shared that during the workshops many people had experienced a heightened sense of participation and the ability to express themselves.
Lyrics and themes were developed during the first two workshops and were based on what people shared that affected them or interests that they have. One song, “The Flood”, was developed by the RFI workshop attendees, was about how Hurricane Irene and Lee impacted them either on a personal level or affected them through experiences of people they knew. Elly said that during song development, one person observed that the group was “listing all the bad things that had happened, but there were some good things that happened too”. That comment inspired the group to list the many volunteer efforts they had been a part of or had been a recipient of, as well. This song ended up being a crowd favorite at the performance.
Bruce Besdansky and Elly Winiger provided accompaniment with guitars during the performance. Also participating in the workshops and performance were community volunteers and members of the First Presbyterian Church of Delhi choir- Bea Mooney, Tom Little, Ed and Joyce Goff. Reflecting on this experience Bea shared: “What a blessing it was to be part of this event. As with mission work and any outreach, I always walk away feeling like I took so much more than I gave, and I try to give my all. I enjoyed every second of it and would love to be invited back again!”
In addition to the musical performances, laughter and amazement could be heard from the audience as comedian Henry Kamp and mentalist Gavin O’Rourke-Soccorso entertained with jokes and mind reading demonstrations.
A separate OUR SONG performance took place at Carousel Children Services.
OUR SONG is funded in part by a grant from the New York Council on the Arts’ Decentralization program, administered in Delaware County by The Roxbury Arts Group.
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