

Through contributions from the Northern Virginia labor movement, NOVA YELL raised $1,200 to provide access to the Music and Memory program to Heritage Hall in Leesburg. Union activists from NFFE-IAM, IUEC, OPEIU, and CWA spent Saturday afternoon meeting with volunteers and residents to witness the program first-hand.
“This is personal for me,” said Brandon Dillard (CWA). “My grandmother has early stages of Alzheimer’s. After seeing the impact of this program, my cousins and I are going to get her an iPad set up with her music so she can connect with memories from her past and hopefully delay the effects of this illness.”
“This is just the beginning,” said Randy Erwin (NFFE-IAM). “We look forward to sharing our experience and working with Music and Memory to help more seniors who are living with Alzheimer’s or dementia.” NOVA YELL thanked the local unions and labor activists who donated to the project.
“Just know that every one of those iPods is a smile on one of these residents' faces,” said J. S. Parker Jones IV, CNHA, FACHCA, CAS, the Administrator at the Heritage Hall Nursing & Rehab Center.
photos courtesy Julie Hunter