 
Last day of sessions... 
Sunrise gave us little gifts and made us an amazing card to say thank you!! Our last session was AMAZING! VERY moving! LOVED it.  
We played at the closing ceremony at the Special Olympics. Awesome.  Thursday, June 10, 2010 Busy day... It is hard to believe that tomorrow will be our last time at Sunrise. The sessions today were awesome!! Georgia, Eddie, and I all agree that today was the best day! The groups were amazing… a lot of SWEET moments, which was great because the news crew joined us. Julianne and Eddie were interviewed after the session and it was featured on Cayman 27 News [which will be posted online later]. Below are a few screenshots from the news...  The Lighthouse group [Laurynn, Mike, and April] gave their in-service presentation, which was fabulous.  Drum making continued…  We went to the Special Olympics to support the basketball players from the Sunrise crew. It was nice to be able to support them outside of the sessions.  Before hitting the hay, we worked on the song that we will be performing at tomorrow’s closing ceremony for the Special Olympics.  Wednesday, June 09, 2010 Another early morning for the sunrise group… we got picked up by George again and he was just as awesome as yesterday however, I was extremely tired that I was dozing off on the ride there. My sleepiness went away as soon as we arrived where the staff and members warmly greeted us. The sessions today were awesome, as usual. The adults in our group all respond well to music. Communication among some members has greatly improved. Those who are non-verbal are able to express¬ to us whether or not they like a song and if they want to change an instrument. It’s pretty cool to see everyone singing out loud and responding to the music. The staff and aides love music therapy—it’s great to know we have their support. There will be some news coverage about music therapy at Sunrise going on tomorrow. I love that we are getting the word out there. This will be great both Sunrise and the field of music therapy! Excited.  Once we had down time this afternoon a lot of us took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep… naptime! Afterwards, there was some drum making going on… we are going to have instruments galore once the drums are all finished.  We then had a quick skype session with Christine and later headed to the beach where we swam, took pictures, and had dinner which catching the sunset [@Sunset house]. Pretty awesome! 
Tuesday, June 08, 2010 Today the wonderfully amazingly awesome Sunrise bus driver, George, gave Georgia, Eddie, and me a ride to the Sunrise Adult Training Centre. He gave us a magnificent tour of the island as he picked up the Sunrise group members. George knew what seemed like everything [+everyone] there is to know about the island. Once all the group members were picked up [+our tour was all finished] we set off to the Sunrise Adult Training Centre where we did our music therapy sessions. The first group was filled with new faces that all shared a love for music. We will be seeing this group throughout the rest of the week so more news about this group soon to come! Once the session was over, we joined everyone for snacks [cookies + reggae medley punch = delish].  The second session had two familiar faces from yesterday's group. I held the tambourine for one of the group members who needed assistance. Despite his movement difficulties, he was able to play and follow the group when given cues such as increasing tempo. Other members from this group decided to participate in the group not only through playing their instruments but also through dancing. One woman seemed timid when coming in the session. When handing her an instrument, she spoke quietly. Once the music started, she got up and danced throughout the whole session. When we ended this session, we were asked to stay a little longer by the staff and since our ride had not come yet, we continued the music and more people trickled in the room. The woman who danced throughout the last session requested, "I Believe I Can Fly." The whole group began waving their hands in the air… wow very touching moment. Another woman sang Billy Joel’s, “We Didn’t Start The Fire” which led to another amazing moment. Georgia brilliantly accompanied the group on the two songs… she amazes me… she’s ready for anything!  Once we got back to the hotel, we ate and the whole group skyped with Christine then went to the beach. Our dinner tonight was breakfast style—eggs, bacon, and pancakes. We worked on our group song again, which is coming along great! Before heading to bed, Georgia helped me out a ton with guitar and taught me a few songs in which I could use to lead tomorrow’s session. BIG thank you to her!! Monday, June 07, 2010 We arrived to Grand Cayman yesterday afternoon and spent of the rest of the day getting settled--cooled off with some pool action and later got down to business with some session planning and finalizing our in-service presentation.  During this trip I will be stationed at Sunrise Adult Training Centre along with Georgia and Eddie. I am very fortunate to be working with them because they are awesome!! I am learning so much from them and the rest of the team. Today was our first day at Sunrise. We gave our in service presentation today and it was a great success. In starting our presentation, we sang a hello song and the staff responded well by joining in this little jam and adding they own hello's like "whassup" and "hey maaan." They all seemed to be eager to learn more about music therapy and what we will be doing this week. After the presentation, we did a quick session with a small group of wonderful clients. They all responded to the music well and enjoyed themselves. This week is the Special Olympics week so we did an activity that imitated a race through drumming. The weather is beautiful out here-- aside from the humidity-- so we pulled out the sunshine songs in today's session and will probably continue to do so throughout the week. We closed with "Jesus Loves Me" at the request of one of the group members which was awesome!! What a great first day!  Once everyone in our team was all back together. We took a little trip to the beach. The water was gorgeous! We all had fun. At night, we had some delicious tacos and we began learning our trip song... very exciting!  Sunday, June 06, 2010 Now flying to Miami where I will meet up with the rest of the group and depart to Grand Cayman to start our exciting journey!  |
About Me
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I am harpist and aspiring music therapist originally from southern California. I will be entering my third year/fourth semester at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
Team Cayman 2010 = AWESOME!!
