In just 5 months and with no promotion of the program at all, we presented "When Swing Was King" 31 times!
The last presentation of the year was given on New Year's Eve to a wonderfully receptive audience at Brookestone Village. It was our first time there and we were the entertainment at their regular wine and cheese New Year's celebration. A very good crowd showed up -- somewhere between 45 and 50 people, Claire guessed -- and they really got into it.
So did the activities director. She signed us up on the spot for a monthly gig! She was so impressed with the quality of the program and with how much the residents enjoyed the music, the photographs and the quirky stories about the bandleaders. She was also thrilled at the fact that we take care of the set up ourselves, that we stick around to talk to the residents after the program -- and that we do not charge anything for coming! "This is so neat," she told Claire a few days later. "The residents absolutely loved the show. They're still talking about it. Thank you so much. We're all so pleased that you're going to be coming here regularly."
We're pleased too. Very pleased. And very grateful to God for giving us the idea for what has proven to be such a winsome, effective ministry to so many of the elderly in our community...and Blair, Bellevue and Missouri Valley too. We love doing it. We love the time we spend talking to residents and staff before and after. We love the testimony it represents -- pro-life Christians willing to create and share a quality entertainment program with people that are set aside, if not forgotten altogether.
Next up, if I get it finished in time, is the debut of Edition Number 7 of "When Swing Was King" at the Life Care Center at two tomorrow afternoon. We are looking forward to it.
