Each Tuesday evening in the Wilkinson Student Center, community members with mental and intellectual disabilities meet with Y-Serve volunteers to dance, sing and strengthen friendships in BYU’s Adaptive Show Choir.
The choir has been in place since 2018, and through it volunteers and participants build relationships both inside and outside of weekly practice.
Each semester culminates in a final show in which the choir members and volunteers perform three choreographed songs. In between the choreographed songs, choir members have the opportunity to perform solo acts with each other or the volunteers that they are paired up with.
Kourtney Maughan, currently in her second year as the lead program director, joined the choir in 2019 as a freshman from previous experience with special needs organizations. Each year since its inception, Maughan said the choir has grown exponentially and now includes over 200 people.
“Every semester is so special and meaningful in its own way,” Maughan said. “I build new relationships that are so fulfilling and bring so much purpose for my life ... it’s worth every single hour that I put into it.”
Cal Nielson first learned about the Adaptive Show Choir when invited by a friend to their concert. This prompted him to join the choir and later become part of the team of directors.
“It surprised me how sincere a friendship you grow to develop with the choir members. I came in with the expectation that ... I was here to help them out or give them service, but I realized pretty quickly that really it was a mutual friendship,” Nielsen said. “We love each other, and it’s a lot less about ‘how can I help you?’ and more like ‘I love you, and we’re friends.’”
Bethany Duffy, now a senior, has been volunteering with the choir since her freshman year. Joining the show choir has been a meaningful continuation of her time volunteering with the special needs program at her high school, she said.
“It gives you an opportunity to interact with some of the most wonderful, pure human beings ever,” Duffy said. “Being around them and being around their light and their enthusiasm and seeing how excited they are to see you and to dance and just live fully and see them be completely themselves — it’s such a beautiful thing to see.”
“I love the friends and the choir,” Devin Dawson, choir participant and dance-song-sports enthusiast, said.
Volunteer Tricia Cowgill, who participates in the choir with Devin, met him initially through her work with a company of direct support professionals.
“It’s been so fun to see him in this different atmosphere and ... meet some of the other choir members,” Cowgill said. “They’re so fun, so funny and have the best personalities.”
Lisa Hansen, whose daughter Ashley Claire participates in the choir, said that she first learned about the choir when it was advertised at their local high school. In this beginning time, there were only around a dozen participants and volunteers.
Many parents, Hansen said, come from very far distances and organize their schedules to ensure that their kids can attend.
“It is such a service to the families that basically have limited social experiences to be able to come on a beautiful campus and work with beautiful humans that are so kind and loving and caring towards our children and treat them with so much love and respect,” Hansen said. “It’s a gift that just keeps on giving ... I hope it never ends.”
Parent Cheri Phippen has two kids participating in the show choir: 29-year-old Tyler who has Williams syndrome and 24-year-old Julianna who has Down syndrome. Phippen said the BYU volunteers’ friendships with Tyler and Julianna go beyond the weekly choir rehearsals and include texts and calls, keeping in touch during summer break, thoughtful gifts and supporting them in other extracurricular activities.
“It means so much to me that a college student who is so busy willingly and happily sacrifices time every week to attend,” Phippen said. “It’s my kids’ favorite day of the week!”
This semester’s final show for the Adaptive Show Choir will be on Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. in the Smith Field House. For more information about the choir and how to join, visit the webpage and @byuadaptiveshowchoir on Instagram.