Volunteers sing old songs to retirees, need more voices

QUINCY, Ill. — The best thing that can happen during a performance by the Volunteer Voices is to have the audience sing along.

The group visits nursing and retirement homes on Friday afternoons to sing “the old songs” known to most of the residents.

“If you love to sing, it’s just a wonderful way to spend your Friday,” Volunteer Voices member Marcia Cramsey said. “I guarantee you’ll feel wonderful when you walk out of wherever you’re singing.”

A recent appearance at Harvest Hills Retirement Center featured standards like “Carolina in the Morning,” “I Just Keep Trusting My Lord,” “Toot Toot Tootsie” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams” sung with a piano accompaniment played by the group’s director, Janet Schneeberger.

“We’re here to sing for you and with you,” Juanita Niederhauser, the day’s mistress of ceremonies, reminded the audience that tapped toes and bobbed heads in time with the music filling the community room.

“They sing all the old songs, don’t they?” Harvest Hills resident Mary Henning, who sang along with the group, said. “I love to hear them.”

But after nearly 30 years, the group may disband at the end of 2011 if some new members can’t be found.

“We’d like to keep on, but if we don’t have enough, we won’t continue on,” Schneeberger said.

Volunteer Voices got its start in 1981 thanks to the late Tom Moore.

“He just wanted to get people together to sing,” Schneeberger said.

The group had as many as 25 singers, both men and women, at one time and 20 when Schneeberger joined around a dozen years ago. Health issues, deaths and natural attrition trimmed the numbers over the years to just 12 active female members today, putting the group’s future in jeopardy.

“We do hope we can keep on, but it’s just not worth it if we don’t sound good. In a big place, you can’t sound good if you’ve got eight people,” Schneeberger said. “About 20 would sound good.”

Schneeberger admits joining the group is a commitment.

The group practices at 10 a.m. Fridays at the Quincy senior center, then performs at 2 p.m. rotating between several Quincy locations and North Adams Home in Mendon 11 months of the year — they take January off to avoid the worst of the winter weather. The group also sings for service and church groups, occasionally for funerals of longtime members, and in a recent first, for the wedding of two residents of the Veterans Home.

Most performances are 14 songs, with a break halfway through filled with the pianist playing a couple of tunes.

Group member Jeannie Goodwin, who joined the group two years ago, said she gets more out of each performance than the audience.

“I love watching them,” Goodwin said.

“We were singing at Bickford Cottage and there was this little old lady all dressed up and halfway sleeping. When we started singing, she perked right up, going with the beat,” Mary Steinkamp, who joined the group four years ago, said. “I know we made somebody happy.”

The smiling singers, dressed in white tops and black pants, hold black notebooks with the music.

“I had to learn some of the tunes. Some I was familiar with but didn’t know the words,” Goodwin said. “What really helped is practicing. We practice songs for a couple months before we go out and sing them.”

Steinkamp makes sure that members have their music.

“We sing the same songs May, June and July. Then we do August, September and October,” Steinkamp said. “Usually we sing songs that pertain to the season, like fall or we do Christmas songs.”

Key to joining the group, which is part of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, is a love of singing.

“If you can carry a tune or close to it, you’re ours,” Schneeberger said.

“I don’t have a beautiful singing voice,” Cramsey said. “I just provide volume, but we have some absolutely beautiful singing voices.”

The shared love of singing leads to lasting friendships.

“When I joined the group, I didn’t know a soul. They made me feel like we’d always been friends,” Cramsey said. “I guarantee that if someone likes to sing, they will really enjoy this. It’s the most enjoyable part of my week.”