The Academy of Holy Cross students’ voices rang out from the Lang Hall auditorium as they sang a diverse selection of songs, ranging from Christmas standards to the Lizzie McGuire soundtrack, to an audience of senior citizens at The Village at Rockville, a continuing care retirement community in Maryland.

This was just one of several events held throughout the Washington area as part of the Kensington academy's All-School Day of Service on April 27, when close to 400 students were joined by faculty and staff at 29 sites doing various kinds of service. The community outreach program began in 2018 during Holy Cross's 150th anniversary year. This year the service activities also included Holy Cross students unloading food and serving at a food pantry, delivering Meals on Wheels to families, volunteering at a farm, assisting with administrative tasks at a crisis pregnancy center, cleaning up along the Anacostia River, helping load bikes for the Bikes for the World project, cleaning the grounds at a parish, and helping with planting and harvesting fruits and vegetables at the urban garden of the Capital Area Food Bank

Ten Holy Cross seniors performed the concert for elderly residents and later assembled a "balloon arc" at The Village at Rockville.

The singers wore hot pink shirts with the design "Blessings on Blessings" for the retirees. The phrase is a reference to the Bible verse from 2 Corinthians 9:8-9, "They have freely distributed their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever."

Holy Cross seniors Anna DeMino, Mercy Asamoah, and Emilia Moberg are members of the Tri-M Music Honor Society at the academy. After the concert, they sat down to reflect on their morning of service.

“I think this is an amazing program for our school to have, we didn’t have one last year since it was mainly virtual, but to actually go out into the community, it’s like our one last hurrah as a senior class, because next week is our last week of school,” DeMino said.

DeMino is a first-year student at Holy Cross, having transferred there after her junior year. “So this is like a fun outing for all of us to go and do service together, and I’m so lucky to see how much of an impact we can make on our community,” she said. DeMino also serves as the historian for the school’s chapter of the International Thespian Society.

Mercy Asamoah is a member of the Madrigal Singers and the Guitar and Ukulele Club at Holy Cross. During the singing portion, students took requests from the audience, including "On Eagles' Wings" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

“Some of [the songs] were from our actual concert that we have tomorrow actually, so we just needed to perform that so we could get a little bit of practice and then just have a little bit of fun with the praise and worship songs,” Asamoah said, referring to their school’s Spring Concert.

Moberg, president of the academy’s Tri-M Music Honor Society, said the day was meaningful to her because of the in-person event.

“My sophomore experience was much less fun than this [due to the pandemic], this is great because I’ve gotten to meet people and interact with them face-to-face, and I can see their faces light up when it’s a song they requested,” Moberg said.

Students sang while accompanied by Laura Van Duzer on piano. Van Duzer serves as the academy’s Performing Arts Department chair, as well as a performing arts teacher.  Eight of the 10 students in attendance today were members of Van Duzer's Madrigal Singers, with the remaining two belonging to the school's performing arts community.

“Watching people come alive and really respond to music that’s meaningful to them, it’s really great for the students to see because they are talented, but it’s not just about shining a light upon themselves, it’s about bringing joy to other people or sparking a memory,” Van Duzer said.

Residents could be heard whistling and singing along to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Down in the Valley”, according to Van Duzer.

“When you have Alzheimer’s patients, for example, they will remember childhood songs long after they forget the names of their spouse and their children. You play a song from their childhood and they will sing it, they will dance it,” Van Duzer said. “There’s something about music that sticks in the memory in ways that I think are still mysterious.”

Dementia is a general term for a group of symptoms that impair memory, whereas Alzheimer's disease is a specific type of dementia that affects the brain. Alzheimer's disease typically begins in the part of the brain that controls learning, as well as thinking and reasoning abilities.

According to the Mayo Clinic, research has shown that music unlocks musical memories that are "relatively undamaged by the disease."

Isabel Bouchard is The Village's volunteer coordinator and Connected Living coordinator. She said the senior citizens in the audience that day live in the assisted living community or the Memory Care Unit. Like Van Duzer, Bouchard spoke about how helpful music can be for those suffering from memory loss.

“[Memory Care Unit] individuals are the ones living with dementia, and I think those guys were actually the ones that enjoyed the program the most…when all else fails, music is definitely that one thing that resonates with anyone, whether they recognize the song or not,” Bouchard said.

Following their performance, students helped with cleaning and organization by sorting large Tupperware tubs full of miscellaneous holiday decorations from the Village's Easter celebration.

This, along with the balloon arc construction and sorting of individual bamboo cuttings, was all done to assist The Village's Volunteer Appreciation Celebration for adult volunteers who help there.