A-caroling they will go: Volunteers lift spirits

Informal groupof singers has been ongoing for 20+ years

BY GLORIA STRAVELLI Staff Writer

BY GLORIA STRAVELLI
Staff Writer

A group of carolers (above) sings Christmas songs for Matthew Lavarin at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch on Dec. 15. Left, Michael Ellis plays guitar and leads the carolers through the hospital’s hallways. He has made the caroling an annual event at local hospitals for more than 20 years.  A group of carolers (above) sings Christmas songs for Matthew Lavarin at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch on Dec. 15. Left, Michael Ellis plays guitar and leads the carolers through the hospital’s hallways. He has made the caroling an annual event at local hospitals for more than 20 years. Some volunteer programs take a lot of planning and organizing but for more than two decades, Michael Ellis has managed to keep a group that sings carols at local hospitals going with little more than a small ad placed in local newspapers each holiday season.

“Wanted: Christmas carolers. Any adult interested in singing Christmas carols. A good voice is not a prerequisite, only the desire to add a little enjoyment to the appreciative patients, their visitors and hospital staff. This is one sure way to feel good and get into the holiday spirit,” the ad reads.

“We had 24 [carolers] on Monday night,” said Ellis while waiting for the group to gather in the lobby of Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch 10 days before Christmas. “I never know how many are going to show up. I call people around Thanksgiving and they are waiting for my call. A lot of them do check out the papers. A lot of the same people come every year.”

PHOTOS BY SCOTT PILLING staff PHOTOS BY SCOTT PILLING staff Though it doesn’t even have a formal name, the group has gone caroling in the hallways, patients’ rooms and wards at local hospitals, including Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, and CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Township.

“I call it the Monmouth County group,” said Ellis, while waiting for carolers to show up in the lobby of Monmouth Medical. “We had a group of people tonight from Long Branch but on Monday, we were at Jersey Shore and had people from that area. I would say 50 percent of them will show up tonight.”

“He’s been coming for at least 20 years. He calls right around Thanksgiving,” said Louise Shivers, director of volunteers for Monmouth Medical. “The singers wear Santa hats; some have jingle bells. I’m just amazed that they’ve been coming for so many years.”

Ellis, of the Elberon section of Long Branch, couldn’t have anticipated the long-running commitment he was embarking on in the early 1970s when he joined co-workers at a West Long Branch company in walking around the plant at holiday time and caroling.

“We would walk around the plant and go to Paterson Hospital or senior citizens homes to sing during the holiday season,” Ellis recalled.

After he graduated from Monmouth College in 1981, Ellis decided to keep the caroling going at his new workplace.

“I decided to do something similar at that company, and we had between 15-20 people who went to four area hospitals,” he said. “That lasted to about 1989. It was informal and at that time was strictly limited to employees, not the community.”

When Ellis switched jobs, he was inspired to keep the tradition going by spreading the word through local newspapers.

“I put an ad in for singers and got several people calling up. That’s where I am today. Now, it’s mostly community; some are seniors, some work at the hospitals. They see the ad. It could be anyone.

“What brings them out? I think it’s something they did when they were young or something they would like to do. There are all kinds of reasons,” he said.

“For me, I think it’s the love of the season, the love of Christmas and helping. Two nights a year I get to do this and it’s something I enjoy and look forward to.”

Hospitals came to be the group’s focus, he said.

“I found people need that little bit of uplifting, a little bit of the spirit, it really helps,” he said. “You get people coming out of their rooms to listen to us. We’ll go into the room and sing if they can’t get out. We’ll ask for requests, and even if we sing a song 30 times during the night, if they want it, we’ll sing it.”

The group sings carols while marching through the hallways, stopping at nurses’ stations, outside, and sometimes inside patients’ rooms for two hours.

“The reaction is generally positive,” he said. “Yes, there are times when people close their doors, maybe because of the noise or some other reason. But there are some people who enjoy it so much they want to join the group.”

With nary a rehearsal, the group comes together in the hospital lobbies at the appointed time, usually 6 p.m., and spends a few moments brushing up.

“There’s no practice at all, none,” said Ellis, who accompanies the group on guitar. “That’s one thing neat about it. I have sheet music and books of carols.”

At Monmouth Medical, Shivers has escorted the singers from floor to floor for some 20 years, leading them to areas where they may lift spirits and spread cheer.

“We’ve been to the ER, to ICU, to the pediatric floor, to cancer wards and the psych ward,” Ellis said.

“What happens is we’ll march down through the halls and sing, and what they’ll do is wave. We wish everyone a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. On the pediatric floor, some of the patients are very young and a little frightened, but their parents are there and if they’re old enough, they join us.”

“The reaction is wonderful,” Shivers said. “Often a patient will stick their head out and they’ll come out and sing.

“One year, we wanted to go to the maternity department. We had never been there before,” she explained. “A mom had been here for several weeks before the birth of her child. The group went in and sang ‘What Child Is This’ and everybody was in tears.

“I think it’s wonderful that they want to come every year,” she added. “It’s grown in excitement every year. It’s good for the patients; it lifts the spirit. Even if they can’t come out, you can hear the voices wafting down the hallways. The staff and visitors enjoy it too.”

The simple act of the carolers joining together with no fanfare has become an anticipated event for some volunteers each year.

“It really is humble,” Ellis said. “All I know is I get a lot of feedback that people enjoy it. For me it helps me get into the holiday spirit. This kind of puts it all in perspective, what we are supposed to do, to help one another. I don’t look for any glory from this thing. I just enjoy doing it and want to help people. It’s not just for the patients, the staff really enjoys it too. They come out and sing with us and visitors, too.

“People are wanting to reach out,” Ellis continued. “The carolers look forward to it; a lot of members have been with me for years.

“We had a caroler a couple of years ago who, after we went caroling, was hospitalized. She was in a room with another patient who had been there for a while. The woman said to her, ‘You should have been here last week. We had carolers and it really lifted my spirits.’ The woman told her, ‘I was part of that group.’ So I know that it’s appreciated.”

“I like to sing and I think it’s a nice thing to do, to bring the Christmas spirit to people in hospitals,” said Rosemarie Herold, Wall, who’s been participating in the group for five to six years.

“You get more out of it than you give,” observed Marie DeMarco, Wall. “It’s amazing, people really respond. Sometimes it brings tears to their eyes.”

“I saw it in the paper and I love to sing,” said Ann Fallon, Long Branch, who was joining the group for the first time this holiday season. This means more to me this Christmastime than anything else. Music is a great healer.”

“It’s a delightful thing to do,” said Young Eng, Long Branch, who has been with the group for five years. “Many patients spend the holiday in the hospital.”

“Last year, a woman came out of a room who was visiting her mother and told us what a difference we made in her Christmastime by singing,” said Anna Downing, Oceanport, a third-year caroler. “We really brightened up her year.”

“It’s magical for people who don’t know each other,” added DeMarco, “other than twice a year. The voices are so melodious, it’s almost like there’s a little blessing on this group.”