Hamburg United Methodist Church Respite Program

Our respite program today was a cultural gem! We started out with violin duets by Eve Roushey and Charlene Brooks, both accomplished orchestra teachers in West Seneca schools. They enthralled us with their beautiful music! Even Thor the wonder dog chilled out and listened.
We then had a delightful chicken and fresh veggie pasta salad with a light orange cake for dessert made by Midge. While our drum circle folks were setting up, we talked about patriotism and what it meant to us and listed words on the blackboard that we associated with the past 250 years in the United States.
Then Caroline the Drum Lady, led us in a drum circle. Everyone had an instrument, no one was left behind! We had a lot of fun doing a conga line with Dorothy leading the way in her wheelchair. It was noted that everyone had a smile on their face! There are some videos also posted on this page of the drum circle.
And then, you can never have enough music, so we ended our day with a sing-along in the parlor led by Barb Meader on the piano and Rollin Shoemaker as our MC. I think it's safe to say that everybody went home happy and pretty tuckered out! They're going to sleep well tonight!

I have sad news to share. We have lost one of our guests who touched many of our hearts. Rick Langenfeld went home to glory yesterday to play music with the Angels. I always called him the "Professor" as he had been one at Hilbert in Criminal Justice. He had also been a lieutenant that retired from the Amherst police department.
His true love though was his wife Lisa and music. We kiddingly called him Mr. Music because he loved sing along time as well as talking about music. We will miss you Rick, but know that you are out of pain and in a better place. RIP