Choir Forming for People Living with Dementia

ST. CLOUD -- A new community choir is being formed specifically for people living with dementia, and their caregivers. "ACT on Alzheimer's" will be holding 10 weeks of rehearsals with a final performance at Whitney Senior Center.

Laura Hood is the Aging Services Director for the city of St. Cloud. She says music is a way to stay connected to people who are losing their memory.

This is an activity around a part of our brain that really functions quite well until the very end, that is the music part of our brain.  So that ability to sing and remember music and be able to perform music.

Hood says it's a pilot program and they're hoping to see measurable results.

We are hoping to do some before and after measurements through some surveys and gather some data.  There are other choirs like that that have been formed throughout the state of Minnesota, so we aren't the first, but what we're finding is a lot of success.

It is free to participate in the choir which will start this coming Tuesday. Call Whitney at 320-255-7245 to get signed-up.

An arts grant for the choir has been provided by the Central Minnesota Community Foundation.