Hockey team brings iPods, Christmas concert to Yellowknife seniors

The G & G Thunder hockey team paid a visit to the Avensseniors home on Monday afternoon, bearing gifts and bringing their musicaltalents to the delighted residents.

The team was inspired by a recent CBC story about 53 seniors with dementia sharing a single iPod as part of a music and memory program.

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"We were moved by the story and thought it wasn't right that the seniors were all sharing one iPod for their program," says team organizerApril Desjarlais, noting that many of the kids had iPods they weren't using.

Desjarlaissays the team pooled their iPods, iTunes cardsand bottle drive moneyand brought it all down to the residence. In total, they donated eightiPods, an iPad, $300 in cashand almost $300in iTunes gift cards to the seniors.

The team's coach says the kids didn't want to just do a simple handover.

"The seniors are really finding something through music and we've got a lot of talented kids on this teamoutside of hockey, so why don't we go and give them the real gift of music," says coach Shawn Talbot.

The nine- and 10-year-old put on a Christmas concert, with some kids on the team dancing, playing music on different instruments, and following it with a team performance of"O Canada."

Avens' recreation supervisor Kate Drexler accepted the gifts and says she was moved by the youngsters' generosity.

She says since the story, there have also been a number of iPodsand headphones donated by members of the community. She says all go towards the music program and bringing the residents the songs, and memories, they love.