1 Editorial Volume 1 | Issue 2 June 2016 MMMT’s programme in rest homes provides dementia patients with: • personalised playlists delivered via an MP3 player and headset; • weekly, interactive music groups run by volunteers; • Music Therapy offered by a qualified, registered music therapist for those individuals who are most responsive to this approach. Welcome to the second issue of Moving Notes, the tri-annual newsletter of the MMMT (Music Moves Me Trust), a registered charity founded in 2015 to promote musical activities with dementia patients. Building on the knowledge and understanding gained in our ongoing pilot programmes at Aparangi (Te Kauwhata) and St Kilda (Cambridge), we are currently extending the programme to Tamahere Eventide and Cascades in Hamilton. Ten other organisations and care facilities are waiting. MMMT’s Trustees – Dr Vicki Jones (CEO), Kath Woodley and Helen McGann (Music Therapist) have been busy with speaking engagements to service clubs, community and church groups and (as featured in this newsletter) at a symposium for Music Therapy NZ. Volunteers working with dementia patients are carefully selected, police checked and trained. Our recent induction course included presentations by gerontologist Dr Broughton Thomas, grief counsellor Erica Weerekoon, registered palliative care nurse Margaret Stevenson. Helen McGann, trustee and registered Music therapist runs workshops for those facilitating interactive music groups. Helen and her work will feature in our November newsletter. This issue highlights fundraising events and the Friends of MMMT’s ‘cup of coffee’ campaign: if 200 ‘friends’ each donate the price of a cup of coffee per week MMMT could support a full-time music therapist! We also profile our dynamic trustee and fundraiser Kath Woodley. MMMT’s contact details are at the end of this newsletter. - Sue Middleton, Editor (photo, right) Photo: Volunteers at MMMT’s induction morning, Rossendale, May 28.
Transcript
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Editorial
Volume 1 | Issue 2 June 2016
MMMT’s programme in rest homes provides dementia patients with:
• personalised playlists delivered via an MP3 player and headset;
• weekly, interactive music groups run by volunteers;
• Music Therapy offered by a qualified, registered music therapist for those individuals who are most responsive to this approach.
Welcome to the second issue of Moving Notes, the tri-annual newsletter of the MMMT (Music Moves Me Trust), a registered charity founded in 2015 to promote musical activities with dementia patients. Building on the knowledge and understanding gained in our ongoing pilot programmes at Aparangi (Te Kauwhata) and St Kilda (Cambridge), we are currently extending the programme to Tamahere Eventide and Cascades in Hamilton. Ten other organisations and care facilities are waiting. MMMT’s Trustees –Dr Vicki Jones (CEO), Kath Woodley and Helen McGann (Music Therapist) have been busy with speaking engagements to service clubs, community and church groups and (as featured in this newsletter) at a symposium for Music Therapy NZ.
Volunteers working with dementia patients are carefully selected, police checked and trained. Our recent induction course included presentations by gerontologist Dr Broughton Thomas, grief counsellor Erica Weerekoon, registered palliative care nurse Margaret Stevenson. Helen McGann, trustee and registered Music therapist runs workshops for those facilitating interactive music groups. Helen and her work will feature in our November newsletter. This issue highlights fundraising events and the Friends of MMMT’s ‘cup of coffee’ campaign: if 200 ‘friends’ each donate the price of a cup of coffee per week MMMT could support a full-time music therapist! We also profile our dynamic trustee and fundraiser Kath Woodley. MMMT’s contact details are at the end of this newsletter. - Sue Middleton, Editor (photo, right)
Photo: Volunteers at MMMT’s induction morning, Rossendale, May 28.
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Kath Woodley: Science, song and banana boxes… At her local shops MMMT’s trustee Kath is referred to as ‘Banana Box Woodley.’ Stacked high in her garage, the boxes bulge with donated clothing, ‘retro’ collectables and bric-à-brac. Boxes and glass jars line Kath’s living-room (below right) stocked with home-made preserves she and other MMMT volunteers prolifically produce. Kath aims to make 5000 jars of lemon honey and in the past few months has made 800 (below left).
So what happens to all these goods? Most will go on sale at MMMT’s stall at the Hamilton East Village Market in Grey St (on the first and third Sunday morning of every month). As detailed later (see ‘Fund-Raising’ below), Kath has started online shops, stages musical events and co-ordinates MMMT’s grant applications to funding organisations. Kath is confident that MMMT can raise $1,000,000 ‘a dollar at a time’ within five years. So who is Kath Woodley? What energises her passionate commitment to MMMT? How did she
become one of its founding trustees? How did she develop her leadership qualities and fund-raising skills?
Unlike many of MMMT’s volunteers, Kath had no prior involvement with people with dementia; she was brought to it by music. Kath (66) is a singing teacher. Dr Vicki Jones, MMMT’s founder and CEO, was one of Kath’s students. Just over a year ago, Vicki – then working two jobs, as a GP and a Hospice doctor - arrived at Kath’s house for her lesson, very tired. So Kath decided to start with tea and a chat. (For Vicki’s story see
our first newsletter, available on our website). Over the teacups, MMMT was born. Kath offered the organisational and fundraising skills she had developed as a mother of four children: she had, she explained, ‘always been President of this, or on the committee of that’ - including Parents’ Centre, Playcentre, La Lèché League - groups that have taught so many women ‘how to work the system.’ Kath later joined other groups such as the Friendship Force and served as President of the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Singing.
Kath and her seven siblings grew up in Hamilton in a musical family: their Dad playing trumpet and clarinet, their Mum a singing teacher. They would bring home sheet music from the library and the whole family would play. They could each play several instruments. These included piano, violin, cello, recorders, clarinet, trumpet. As children, they ‘thought this was normal.’ As a teenager, Kath also sang in her brother’s rock band.
In her teens, as a pupil of Sacred Heart, Kath sang in the choir and played in the orchestra. She enjoyed English and drama and passed her grade 8 piano exam. But she was equally interested in ‘hard sciences.’ In those days, sixth form students usually had to specialise in arts or sciences. While ‘bright boys’ were encouraged into sciences, girls’ schools often did not teach advanced Maths, Physics and Chemistry. So in her sixth and seventh form years Kath had to go the local boys’ school, St John’s, for these subjects. Completing school, she considered going to Australia to study music at the Conservatory, but, encouraged by the career’s advisor did a B.Sc. at Canterbury University, majored in Botany and supported herself by teaching piano to small
‘…I aim to
make 5000 jars of lemon honey.
So far I have made 800.’
‘…Every dollar
has to be worked for. We
can raise a million dollars,
a dollar at a time.’
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children. A fellow student, Dave, asked Kath to be his accompanist for his clarinet exam. This blossomed into romance: Kath and Dave (a Physics teacher) had a long and happy marriage. They taught together in small-town secondary schools, then ‘ended up in Hamilton.’ Busy with small children, Kath also plunged into her committee work.
One morning Kath had an epiphany: ‘I woke up one morning and asked myself, “If I died today, what would I say I had missed?” The answer was singing. She took lessons, was granted leave from teaching to retrain as a school music teacher, and was briefly a Head of Music. With Dave’s support with their small children, ‘I ended up singing all over the place.’ She sang with the New Zealand Opera, studied lieder in Germany, sang oratorios in England. Kath has now been teaching singing privately for 25 years. When Dave became ill, Kath stepped down from her committee work. She has been a widow for two years. MMMT has ‘filled a gap’ and Kath’s well-established community networks have drawn others into MMMT as volunteers.
MMMT’s work is grounded in scientific research on the impact of music on the brains of people with dementia. Resisting the educational pressures of her time to choose ‘arts OR sciences’, Kath has managed to straddle both. She has a Bachelor of Science, the LTCL in singing, a Diploma in Registered Music Teaching, and advanced qualifications in education. Her passion is Voice Science, a little-known field in New Zealand. She undertook a Masters of Music at Auckland University specialising in voice science and spent three months at Ohio State University, which has a laboratory in Voice Science. She wrote her thesis on voice pedagogy: how to get teachers of voice to understand what’s happening physically. Voice science is one of the newest sciences and there is no laboratory in the southern hemisphere. Kath is now embarking on a PhD through the Centre for Brain Research at the University of Auckland.
Above: Kath in a local show, 2010
Music Therapy Symposium
On May 24, as part of Music Therapy Week, Music Therapy New Zealand and Auckland University’s Centre for Brain Research held a symposium at the University’s Tamaki campus, ‘Singing together: Celebrating Music Therapy and Musical Partnerships.’ Registered Music Therapists described working alongside other professions with clients with a wide range of disabilities. Amongst the invited speakers were
MMMTs trustees, whose presentation ‘Hit connect: The work of the Music Moves Me Trust’ was the only one focused on dementia patients. They outlined the origins of MMMT and its programme, the research on which it is based, and case studies from our pilot programmes.
Photo: MMMT Trustees’ giving their presentation: Left, Dr Vicki
Jones (CEO); centre, Helen McGann, Registered Music Therapist; Right, Kath Woodley.
‘…People
assume I’m a
scientist first and
vocal teacher
second. It
shouldn’t be
‘arts versus science.’ Voice science is a new
science, little known in the
southern hemisphere.’
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Fund Raising: How you can support us!
Film nights
Our next film screening will be an exciting new release at Hoyts, Te Awa, The Base on Sept. 4 at 4.00pm. Details will be released on our website or contact Sharon: [email protected]
Mid-Winter Dinner with live music by the Amoroso Trio, 23 July, 5.30pm
Venue: The Metcalfe, 292 Ginn Rd, RD1 Rotowaro. For tickets and inquiries contact [email protected]
High Teas
These are a popular and fun way to support us. Each high tea accommodates 15 guests, who each pay $15. (Hosts may retain up to $50 to cover expenses). If you would like to attend or organize a high tea, contact Margaret Garden: [email protected]
Musical Events – DETAILS ON OUR WEBSITE
Sing for Charity - ‘SOUND OF MUSIC’ - join in! No auditions - just fun! December 4, Watch our website for details.
Christmas Glow Concert, 17th December, 7.30
Friends of the MMMT (join for $1.00 to receive e-newsletters and notices)
Cup of Coffee campaign
A flyer is included in this newsletter. If you donate $5.00 per week to MMMT via online banking– the price of a cup of coffee – you can help sustain the wage of our music therapist. We are a registered charity, so your donation is tax deductible.
Shopping:
Support our stall at Hamilton East Village Market on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month
COMING SOON! Online shops: Watch our website or Facebook pages for details and links.
Thanks to all our volunteers, supporters and sponsors, including:
James R. Hill, Funeral Directors for printing this newsletter
Lions Cambridge and Te Kauwhata for music kits, MP3 players and earphones;
Noel Leeming for discounted electronics;
Grants or other assistance with training, our music therapist’s travel and/or pilot programmes were provided by Hamilton City Council, Music Therapy New Zealand; NZ Music Foundation; Cambridge Christmas Festival Society.
