A big-city orchestra salvages a student’s canceled recital
Performing arts students across the country had their senior performances canceled as universities moved to virtual instruction. When Temple University student Brooke Mead’s recital was canceled, she asked the Philadelphia Orchestra for advice during their online question-and-answer session.
The orchestra offered Mead the opportunity to perform her recital as part of one of their live webcasts. “It’s been a bit of a roller coaster emotionally, just thinking about going from a packed hall to no hall, to having possibly to record yourself, to then having this virtual audience,” Mead told the Associated Press.
Red Sox reporter turns auctioneer, raises $57K for charity
Boston Red Sox beat writer Chris Cotillo was out of a job when the MLB postponed their season because of the outbreak. Cotillo decided to do something worthwhile with his time while he waited for the season to begin again, so he began selling some of his autographed baseball cards on Twitter and donating the profits to charity.
So far he has sold more than 350 items and raised over $57,000. “I was just going to go through it until I ran out of my own stuff,” he told the Associated Press. “But donations keep coming.”
Retirees isolated by virus become DJs for new radio hour
An online radio hour called “Radio Recliner” started hiring retirees in Tennessee as DJs to help the isolated seniors stay connected during the pandemic. The program now has DJs from assisted-living centers in Georgia and Alabama as well.
The DJs record their introductions and transitions and select the songs; the Radio Recliner production team then puts it all together into a seamless radio show.
Cranes reunite families in corona crisis
Tristan Van den Bosch was on his way to work one morning when he saw a man trying to speak with his mother who lived on the third floor of a senior living home. Families haven’t been able to speak with their relatives in care homes for months because of the pandemic, so Van den Bosch came up with a plan to help.
Van den Bosch worked for a cleaning and maintenance company in Belgium whose cranes had been mostly unused during the pandemic, and he started using these cranes to lift families up to speak to their relatives on the upper floors of care homes.
