Scopus students bring music to cancer patients
Melbourne’s Mount Scopus College students has brought music to patients receiving treatment for cancer at Box Hill Hospital
Bella Barolsky and Gideon Segal
Year 9 students, as part of their Community Project, have being visiting the hospital to play for patients in the Oncology Ward and Day Care Unit.
The students played a range of instruments including guitar, piano, clarinet, flute and keyboard, and also sang for patients, and perform both group pieces and solos.
Student Bella Barolsky who plays the flute, piano and ukulele said, “We opened with Over the Rainbowand played a mixture of songs. When we played Hallelujah, one of the patients started singing along and it was great to know we had brightened someone’s day.”
The students prepared a variety of genres and also took requests from patients, with many of the nursing staff personally thanking them for making their day.
Elliott Herschberg, who plays keyboard said, “It was a really good experience and we learnt a lot as musicians, as well as helping to better the lives of others.”
Jack Moses, Ashleigh Jaffe, Jason Antman and Jordan Treger
The students showed incredible maturity, sensitivity and respect each time they visited, over the course of the school term.
They also acted as their own roadies, carrying, setting up and packing up all their own gear, and loading it into the bus from school to the hospital each time.
The Year 9 Community Project sees students develop their awareness of others and take action through service in their community.
The project consolidates their learning in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme and allows them to engage in a sustained, in-depth inquiry leading to service in the community.
While our talented musicians took their skills to Box Hill Hospital, others volunteered with the elderly at social and sporting activities, cleaning up their school and local community areas, cooking and preparing meals for those less fortunate and collecting goods to donate to those in need, as well as raising awareness and in many cases funds for the causes they had chosen.
