Students Provide Musical Halloween Treat for Care Center Residents

As children everywhere knock on doors tonight to receive candy and other treats, third and fourth grade students at Independent Day School-Corbett Campus presented the gift of themselves this afternoon to residents of a local care center as a special entertainment treat.  

For more than 20 years, students have made an annual visit to the Carrollwood Care Center. Dressed in friendly costumes, they provided a musical program for the residents, as well as kind smiles and companionship.  

"Visiting people in a nursing home can be intimidating," said Judy Sobel, the IDS-CC teacher who started the tradition when her own mother was a resident at the facility. "Yet every year, our students are able to dig down inside and give of themselves with genuine compassion and tenderness."  

Music teachers prepared the students to sing a variety of songs selected especially for this audience.

"We also prepared them to initiate conversation," said IDS-CC music teacher Michael LeBlanc, "to be good listeners, and to have an open demeanor towards the residents."