A one-take concert recording by Macphail Memorial Elementary School students has been parlayed into $2,500 in donations so far, which has helped patients at Markdale hospital have virtual meetings with people amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2016 performance was recorded live and released by Mudtown Records of Owen Sound.  It was performed by more than 100 Macphail elementary music students and a handful of high school students from Grey Highlands Secondary School, staff and community members.

There Was A Storm Last Night is the recording downloadable in return for a hospital donation.

The hospital was chosen as beneficiary of the gesture particularly because of a nurse there who’s also been a stalwart supporter of the Macphail music program.  Colleen Vandenberg.

Charlie Glasspool leads the Macphail music program and its award-winning Macphail Tigers Concert Band, which plays on the recording.

Hospital foundation co-ordinator Darlene Lamberti said the Feverhsam & District Kinsmen offered a matching $1,000 donation once public donations reached $1,000.

“The whole community came out for this” she said.

She said the hospital has used these donations to buy two iPads and pay associated expenses for patients to communicate with in lieu of visits, which are restricted amid COVID-19.

Markdale’s hospital, formally Centre-Grey Health Services, was designated at the start of the pandemic to accept seniors waiting to be placed in long-term care.

In addition to patients keeping in touch with loved ones, the hospital chaplain, Rev. Adam Nickell uses the iPads to bring spiritual care inside the hospital in a way a phone call couldn’t, Lamberti said.  He paid 22 virtual visits in May.

Donations to the hospital foundation download may be made by clicking  here