Adele students waking lives through music

Memories are timeless for elders thanks to Alive Inside program|

'Hi Guys! Wow! This is awesome!' exclaims filmmaker Michael Rossato-Bennett, hauling his camera equipment through the front doors of Vintage Sonoma Senior Living Community, and taking in the crowd of kids and teachers making mildly raucous noise in the lobby.

Many of them are wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words, 'Give Music. Wake Lives.'

More than a dozen students from Adele Harrison Middle School are present, eagerly waiting to get started with the final day of their ongoing yearlong Alive Inside field trip project. This is the second such pilot program in the state, both sponsored by Rossatto-Bennett's AIive Inside Foundation, a nonprofit that pairs students with senior citizens, using modern music technology to reach forgotten memories and revive lost verbal skills.

For the last few months, a total of about 30 students, broken into two groups, have visited Vintage each week, with students alternating every-other week. Working in pairs, students have been visiting regularly, sharing their music, their time, and their youthful enthusiasm with a total of five memory care patients.

'OK, everyone! Let's go do this!' calls out Rossato-Bennett, already taping as he leads the group into a common room, where a quartet of residents is waiting at four separate card tables.

Rossato-Bennett, based in New York, is making his first visit to Sonoma since last November, when the program was kicked off with a screening of his award-winning 2014 documentary 'Alive Inside.' The powerful film illustrates how seniors with Alzheimer's and dementia can sometimes have long-buried memories be awakened, after listening to music specifically chosen to reach back to key moments in their lives. The film was screened at the Sebastiani Theater, and introduced the community to the Alive Inside program.

Students from Adele Harrison were invited to participate, initially undergoing several weeks of orientation before the field trips to Vintage Sonoma put them together with a select group of residents. After doing some research on each senior, the students prepares lists of songs that they believes might be meaningful to that resident.

Using specially designed headsets, the students have been sharing the tunes, then working to engage each senior in conversation. The motivating factor is the belief that music has the power to jog memories in people who've experienced severe memory loss. In some cases, music even serves as a stimulus to get people talking who have been largely non-verbal for months or years.

'The kids have just loved doing this,' says Adele teacher Kim Bellach, who has been sharing the project with Shirley Austin-Peeke. It was Austin-Peeke who originally signed on to coordinate the Alive Inside program, after a successful initial testing in Healdsburg last year.

'The students all have their song lists,' says Bellach, describing what's going to happen this morning. 'They are going to be sharing that music with the residents, listening to songs together. Then they have questions they've prepared to ask about those songs, to see if they can tap into any memories from when that senior first heard that particular song.'

Getting right to business, the kids greet their assigned senior, who they've gotten to know over the last several weeks.

'Let's start from the beginning, OK Bob?' says Justin Ornelaf, working with fellow-student Daniel Rico to get the headsets working for their senior, Bob Hackman. Originally from Pennsylvania, Hackman is a retired businessman and former partner with Ernst & Young, in San Francisco.

'You like James Brown, right Bob?' asks Rico, leaning in close and smiling. 'James Brown is one of your favorites? Me too!'

Bob, who has been patiently watching the young men's hands as they work to reset the headphones, turns his gaze to meet Rico's eyes.

'I think that was a yes,' says Rico, as Ornelaf carefully slips the headphone into place around Hackman's ears, and presses play. Together, the three listen to James Brown's 'I Got You,' and though Hackman's expression never changes, he begins to nod slowly and rhythmically, clearly keeping time with the music.

'James Brown! Yeah!' says Ornelaf.

At the next table, student Ryland Montes-De Oca is discussing Tommy Dorsey with former radio announcer Sam Virt, originally from Kansas. A retired hospital administrator, Virt has a lifelong love of music and poetry, and often is inspired to recite poems he's known his whole life.

'Tommy Dorsey, he was really something,' Virt tells the students and visitors surrounding his table. 'I used to dance to Tommy Dorsey.'

Across the room, Kylie Lugger is singing to resident Bill Francis, of Toledo, Ohio. A former scientist and lifelong employee of Lockheed, Francis is clearly delighted by Lugger's acapella rendition of 'You Are My Sunshine,' which she decides to sing out loud after the headset fails to function.

'This is what's so beautiful about this program,' says Rossatto-Bennett, watching from a corner. 'It's this human connection. It's not about the music only. It's about what happens when music comes together with this powerful human contact.'

'Who is your favorite composer? Whose music do you like to listen to?' Near where Rossato-Bennett stands, camera ready, Rosa Valentine and Owen Nelson are discussing classical music with Penti Hakala, originally from Finland, as they listen together to pieces from Bach and Tchaikovsky.

'Sibelius,' Hakala says, after a pause.

'Uh oh. Sibelius isn't on our list,' Valentine whispers. Returning to prepared set of questions, she asks, 'What's your birthday?'

'December 13, 1934,' replies Hakala

'So you're 82? Eighty-one-and-a-half?' Nelson says, doing quick math in his head.

'Eighty-one-and-a-half!' grins Hakala, as both kids grin right back.

'I've been interested in writing and making movies for while,' says Nelson, a few minutes later. 'I didn't know anything about 'Alive Inside' at first, and then my Dad suddenly said, 'Hey, there's this interesting movie playing at the Sebastiani Theater. Let's go.' So we went, and I really liked it, and I asked if I could do it. It's all because my dad was bored one day and took me to a movie.'

As Nelson talks, Rossato-Bennett moves into position to film the conversation,

'What have you learned from all of this?' he asks.

'Well, I've learned that music is very important for everyone, and it affects us all really deeply,' Nelson says. 'Now I imagine that when I'm older, and someone plays the music that I listened to when I was young, it will make me remember my life. I'll remember listening to it with friends, or listening to it alone in my room. I think that will probably make me pretty happy.'

Email David at david.templeton@sonomanews.com.

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