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Jukebox Joy - Our Mission
We all get old - yes, even you.
To
those of us not quite that far down the path, the image of retirement
villages and nursing homes is probably pushed out of day-to-day
thoughts, if old age is thought of at all - but many people are
faced with the reality by proxy through contact with an aging
parent. 
Our affluent, fast-paced society doesn't
spare a lot of time or thought for those already in their senior years.
It's a fact that it can be a lonely - and boring - place to be.
Jukebox
Joy is an embryo organisation of musicians based in Byron Bay,
Australia, whose mission is to bring joy to the lives of senior
citizens by visiting them in nursing homes and retirement villages to
put on a live show for about an hour a month, playing many of the old
songs they love -- from Mack the Knife and Don’t Fence Me In to Fly Me to the Moon and Somebody Stole My Gal.
The emphasis is on fun with music. The audience often sings along
and sometimes they will get up and dance. The two organisers, Peter
McKaskill and Stephen Calder, currently charge nothing for their
monthly visits to these institutions and have arrangements to play at
three venues every month, including one in Byron Bay (the Orthodox
Home). The welcome reception they receive is as much a joy to them as
the music is, evidently, to the audiences. The duo play acoustic
guitars without amplification and sing solo and with harmony in their
show.
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In the establishment phase, the foundation
members have covered the cost of getting ourselves to and from
venues and outfitting ourselves with instruments and their maintenance,
including such consumables as guitar strings, as we have been doing for
some three years.
A recent small grant has been made available
by Byron Shire Council to get the idea onto a more structured and
professional level, allowing for this web-site and other start up
activities to commence.
Our aim is to pursue public sector sponsorship to provide
additional equipment and to build a service which is valuable and
relevant to our community. Your participation and support would
be greatly appreciated. Help us encourage musicians and senior citizens
alike to experience the joy of sharing live music, increasingly a rare
occurrence for those who are immobile or only partly mobile, while the
rest of us enjoy it in Byron Bay daily.
Your turn will come in
this phase of life. Help us bring joy and music into the lives of those
who have already made their contribution to society, but are now all
too easily forgotten.
Use the "contact us" link to send an email with
any enquiries, or expressions of interest.
The JukeBox Joy Team
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Current members of Jukebox Joy would like to foster a larger
group of talented musicians who would be willing to participate in this
venture, agreeing to play songs of the 1960s and earlier for such
groups throughout the Byron Shire. A number have already shown a desire
to join us.
We have identified nine nursing homes and villages
in the Byron Shire that have expressed interest in being entertained in
this way, and we would like to be able to afford to enrich their
experience by providing rhythm and percussion instruments for them to
play. It would also be desirable to be able to hand out song
sheets
with large print lyrics for singalongs. With the nine senior's centres
exprerssing an interest in participating in the project, there is a
total of 20 hours of potential entertainment to fill each week in
Byron Shire homes.
Jukebox Joy would like to see local schools and youth centres becoming involved also
, and preliminary discussions are soon to take place with stakleholders
regarding the idea of opening up performance possibilities for music
students and youth groups in this context.
Attention Activities Officers - Senior Citizen Centres & Nursing Homes
Would you like some live music for your Christmas party or another Christmas season event in December?
Jukebox Joy presents music from the 1920s to the 1950s, playing
acoustic guitars and singing harmony. We are currently preparing Christmas
carols and songs in anticipation of the "silly" season and would very much like
to present a show for your seniors.
If you would like us to come and entertain your senior audiences with a Christmas Show, please let us know a suitable date so we
can arrange a schedule. It is our plan to visit every nursing home and
retirement village in the Byron Shire during the '07 holiday season.
It's a great way to introduce the service, and if you like the music we
can come regularly to provide a one-hour show, - up to every
month over the coming year.
We currently do not charge for this service. Recently we received a grant from
Byron Shire Council that acknowleges the value of our work and enables us to provide song sheets and rhythm
instruments so that those wish to do so may join in.
All we need from you is a date in late November or December for the Christmas show booking,
which we hope will be the first of many joyous musical events for your
group involving Jukebox Joy.
visit jukeboxjoy.com for contact details
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