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Playing it forward; one piano donation triggers
a triad of musical gifts

June 26th, 2018

This is a story of three pianos, two loved and well played, and a third, brand new and untested. Each of the pianos now has a happy home, and one of those homes is Points West Living Stettler. It all started with the donation of a new, Roland electronic piano to the Long Term Care center at Stettler Hospital. 

'Old' piano freed up

Cliff Everett, whose mother used to live at PWL Stettler, gave the new piano to the Care Centre, freeing up their ‘old’ piano. “At the Long Term Care center, another family member (whose mother had also lived previously at PWL Stettler), told them that their old one was nicer than the one PWL Stettler had in our upstairs hallway area,” says General Manager Carol Dyck.

Playing it forward

So, the offer was made, and Carol gladly accepted the older piano. “It has become a new one for us,” she says. “We then turned around and offered ours for free on the local buy and sell website. A lovely family came and gladly took it home so their young ones could take some lessons.” 

Impromptu performance

And then, along came another family connection that gave residents a great deal of pleasure. “Scott Pfeiffer whose mother used to live with us prior to going to the Long Term Care center is a piano tuner,” says Carol, “so he came and tuned up our new piano, under residents’ appreciative eye. The residents loved to hear him play and so a one hour job turned into 3 hours!”

“This piano is certainly better for us,” adds Carol. The old one was not easy to tune and did not stay in tune for very long. The old one was a large standup and took up lots of room, this one is more compact, and sounds lovely. We are encouraging residents who might like to play piano to come out and give it a try.”

Piano mixup averted

Tanya LaRose, Manager of the LTC center was really glad that this had worked out for all parties,” adds Carol, “although she did joke that when our care partners had gone to pick it up that they tried to abscond with the new one!”

Photo: From left, resident Elaine Pirosky at the keyboard, residents Beryl Finch and Brian Gray, and visitor Cliff Everett, enjoy the ‘new’ piano. Clif says he only wished that he had two pianos to donate after he saw how much PWL Stettler’s residents loved this one.

More photos at Flickr: Playing it forward; one piano donation triggers a triad of musical gifts

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