NEWBERRY, S.C. — Spreading some joyful noise to the elderly is the mission behind a nonprofit here in the Midlands. The music ministry goes around to different retirement centers and plays for the residents.
“We loved them! They are wonderful. They are really good,” Marcia Reichert, Claudia Clary and Mary Peebles agree.
The women live at Springfield Place, a retirement community in Newberry. They recently got a visit from Joyful Noiz, a nonprofit music ministry.
“We feel like it's wonderful for people that will give their time to entertain us elderly because that's what we need,” the group shares. “We need something to pick us up, to get us up and to move around some.”
It’s exactly what Randy Derrick, David Parker and Dave Vieira were hoping for.
“I just love to see these people,” Parker shares. “They get lost in their memories and they get to go back and dance at the waffle house again. That’s the way I look at it.”
It’s how Springfield Place resident Pat Ehney feels listening to the music.
“It just takes you back to a time that you were young and you know, under the boardwalk and, you know, it just, they're just wonderful,” Ehney references ‘Under the Boardwalk’ by The Drifters, one of the songs the band performed. “They're wonderful. Really enjoy them.”
The band got its start in the late 90s. Parker and Vieira tell me they would play together at bars on Saturday nights and then wake up for church in the morning to play worship music alongside Pastor Derrick.
“They did that for a lot of years,” Derrick remembers. “Decades!”
When Derrick retired, they decided to name themselves Joyful Noiz and started traveling to retirement centers two days a week.
“I love it. I love doing it. I mean we’re all hams and that’s why we do it,” Parker laughs.
“I'm at the point in my life where I just want to give back a little bit,” Vieira adds. “And I've been in enough seniors facilities and nursing homes and, you know, I know darn well that there's a lack here, so we do it just to give back them them.”
Now they’ve officially registered as a nonprofit.
“Of course, we've known that we were a nonprofit for a long time, but we’re officially nonprofit,” Vieira laughs.
In hopes of getting more members.
“It's been a real blessing for us and we're just glad to share it and we'll carry it as long as we can go,” Derrick shares. “As long as we are on our feet.”
“We'd love to get some younger folks involved that will carry this forward when we can't get any more,” Vieira adds.
“We don't want this ministry to end with us,” Parker confirms.
They’re hoping the sound of Joyful Noiz will carry well into the future. If you’re interested in helping with that mission through donations or volunteering your talents, Derrick says you can email revrandyderrick@bellsouth.net.