Dimensions Healthcare System

By Jamie Kennedy
Special to the Gazette

Students, Patients Benefit From Caroling

Everything went quiet on the fourth floor of the Prince George's Hospital Center Dec. 13 when people noticed the seven high school students who had walked into their ward.

After all, it's not every day that patients recovering from heart surgery hear tunes like "Frosty the Snowman" harmonized right outside their rooms.

But before long, it was obvious the choir from the Foundation School of Prince George's County in Landover was a welcome disruption. "[The patients] were clapping from their rooms, yelling out songs for them to sing," said Sean Lane, the school's music director.

The students were the first in a line of school choirs singing for the patients at the Cheverly hospital this holiday season.

"Every year we're so blessed that the schools in our community think about us," said Robert Howell, the hospital's director of marketing and public relations. "All the patients appreciate it because you do not want to be in the hospital at Christmas time."

Students from Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie sang Wednesday morning at the hospital center and at the Gladys Spellman Specialty Hospital and Nursing Center next door.

Each year, the students perform a holiday concert as a community service project, said Tasker choir director Patricia Braswell.

"I think from little kids up to the elderly, [the patients] are all warmed by the caroling," she said.

The hospital visit is a good experience for the students as well, according to the choir directors of the two schools.

"It just gives students the opportunity to give back to the community and think in the mode of giving rather than receiving," Braswell said.

The hospital has asked the choir from the Foundation School of Prince George's County to visit on a monthly basis, Lane said, and the students are excited about the invitation.

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