Linda Valley Villa Carolers Spread Holiday Cheer

Dressed in holiday garb, including hand-made festive hats knitted by a resident, nine senior carolers from Linda Valley Villa this week and last spread holiday cheer to the city as they performed at four different senior care and living institutions in Loma Linda. The halls of Ryan's Homecare, L & S Lifecare Home, the Loma Linda VA Hospital and Loma Linda University's (LLU) Adult Day Health Service rang cheerfully with the words of holiday classics including "White Christmas," "Silent Night," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," "Jingle Bells" and "Let it Snow" as the carolers visited the homes on two occasions, Dec. 3 and 10. Linda Valley Villa senior care residents Vivian Clark, Miyori Ito, Shirou Kunihira, Jean Luckey, Doris Roth, Sets Takeno, Alberta Tohm, Hedy Wharton and Margaret Yanagihara were led by the home's director of community relations, Joanne Lapointe, who gathered singers together for the second year to participate in the performance. "There are a lot of residents here who love music and love to serve their community," Lapointe said. "There are board and care institutions here that don't get much in the way of visitors, so this was our way of supporting our residents and helping them serve their community." Lapointe is a singer herself and explained that the holidays were chosen for the event because it presents a good time to spread the cheer. Residents practiced before each performance for about 15 minutes on the bus, reading from sheet music provided to them in colored folders. The group's bus driver, Don Lowe, even joined in by playing "Joy to the World" on the harmonica. Their mission to spread cheer was fulfilled in no time, as they were well-received, shared Lapointe. "Our residents and the people we sang for got so much joy out of [the performance]," she said. "A lot of them were very excited to join in and sing." Each caroling visit concluded with the Linda Valley Villa carolers handing out candy canes to their listeners to say thank you and goodbye.