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Music Mends Minds

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Meeting Carol Rosenstein is a joyful experience. Her welcoming embrace, colorful scarves and passion for her newfound work are magnetic.

She and her beloved Irwin, a lawyer, met after Carol placed an ad in a Los Angeles newspaper seeking a new mate.  Several years ago, Irwin developed Parkinson’s disease and then dementia, and the course of their lives together took an unexpected turn. When Carol noticed Irwin’s spirits and energy rising as he played familiar tunes on his piano, she knew she was on to something significant. In her own words, “music mends minds.”

So together, Carol and Irwin began MMM to promote music as an alternative therapy for neurodegenerative diseases. In addition to LA’s original intergenerational Fifth Dementia Band, new groups are forming across the country and overseas. The beautiful music and camaraderie engendered amongst all involved forestalls the progression of Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and related dementias, inspiring the daughter of one participant to share that the ”music gave my mum hope, laughter, and joy when nothing else could.”

GPF funds help underwrite the costs of a music therapist to enhance MMM’s groundbreaking work.

LiLY-Lifeforce in Later Years

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Good People Fund LiLY-Lifeforce in Later Years

Bella*, over 100 years old, is at a point in life when frailties, illnesses, and limited support can lead to isolation and loneliness so great as to threaten her well-being and survival. So, it’s no surprise that she welcomes visitors from LiLY – her connection to community and life – with joy and anticipation.

LiLY creates that connection for elderly persons in the Morningside Heights and West Harlem neighborhoods of Manhattan, where seniors living in relative isolation – some at or near the poverty line – can easily disappear. The organization was created in 2009 by Irene Zola as a response to her own experiences with her elderly mother.

Today, LiLY has about 125 volunteers serving about 175 seniors and doing everything from friendly home visits and walks together, to help with paperwork, escorts to doctor visits, connections to professionals and services, and errands. Our matching funds are directed to a social worker’s salary.

*a pseudonym

Survivor Mitzvah Project

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His name is Isaak and today he is 90 years old.  Born in Berdichev, Ukraine, Isaak still recalls very clearly the summer of 1941 when the Fascists appeared and ordered all of the Jews to a nearby town and a certain death. Isaak’s father approached a neighbor who kindly sheltered the family underneath their barn. Food was scarce and danger ever-present. And yet, somehow, the family survived. But, as Isaak says, “Humiliation, hunger and cold. This is what our family endured.”

It is for Isaak and Fanya and Luba and Tsilya and thousands more who reside in remote areas of Eastern Europe that Zane Buzby founded The Survivor Mitzvah Project. After traveling to the region years ago in search of her own family’s roots, Zane was stunned by the poverty, poor health and isolation she witnessed. She returned home inspired to make sure that these elders who have already suffered so much, live their last days in some comfort. Today, more than 2500 people benefit from financial assistance and regular contact, assuring them that they are not forgotten.  Our funds underwrite survivors’ needs.