ELLWOOD CITY — A young man approaching adulthood has started a project to help people on the other side of the age spectrum, seniors who no longer remember the lives they lived.
Andrew Vollmer, 17, of Findlay Township, a junior at West Allegheny High School, has provided music players to dementia patients at an Ellwood City nursing home that might help reawaken some of their memories.
Moved by the film "Alive Inside" about the power of music to touch people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia, Vollmer decided to buy 25 Memory Players as part of his Eagle Scout project and present most of them to patients at Northview Estates.
Memory Players are all-in-one high-quality headphones with no wires or batteries that play music from an individualized memory card. A number of studies have shown that music stimulates parts of the brain, and studies also show that music enhances the memory of Alzheimer's patients.
When Vollmer recently delivered the players to Northview, he was able to see that when patients are listening to music that means something to them, they react with smiles and movements.
"It was really nice to see people reacting to it. They are often alone at this time in their lives," Vollmer said.
Anastasia Lynn, program director for Northview Estates and Rhodes Estates, said Vollmer is a very special young man. "It is a wonderful gift and our residents at Northview are very appreciative," she said. "I want people in Ellwood to know that Northview Estates will donate a memory player to anyone in the Lawrence County community who has any type of dementia living in their own private home. This is a program for the community."
Vollmer, a member of Boy Scout Troop 830 in Findlay, learned about the Memory Players from his father, Dave. "My father watches videos while he works out and he showed me 'Alive Inside,' and I checked it out and I thought that was really cool. We talked about it and decided it would be a great Eagle Scout project," he said.
Vollmer's project was approved by his troop leaders. "They said they thought it was different than the usual Eagle Scout project and it would also have a lasting impact on the community," he said." My troop leader, Doug King, has a relative who has Alzheimer's, so he was aware of the problems."
With his father's help, Vollmer contacted Michael Rossato-Bennett, writer, director and producer of "Alive Inside," which won the 2004 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for documentary. The film is the story of how music can touch people when nothing else does. The nonprofit Alive Inside Foundation, designed to cultivate empathy, also has an intergenerational component. (www.aliveinside.org). Rossato-Bennett was able to get them a discount on the Memory Players.
To raise money for his project, Vollmer wrote 50 letters to local small businesses asking for donations. He set a goal of buying 15 Memory Players, but received $800 from businesses, friends and family members, enough to buy 25 players. And with the help of his troop, he also downloaded the music onto the Memory Players. Twenty-two Memory Players were donated to Northview Estates and three to the West Allegheny Library.
Lynn began working on the Alive Inside program in November 2016 and continues to reach out to the community.
"The Memory Players are helpful for caregivers to keep their loved ones calm and reduce stress and anxiety for both of them," she said. "I get so many positive responses and people have been so grateful for the Memory Players. I get many orders in New Castle, but not Ellwood City, so I hope they will call me." She can be reached at 792-488-6203.