By Karen King Russo
“Adia wants to bring Christmas to everyone, especially people who are homebound,” said co-founder and philanthropist Nick Arquette. Arquette is also founder of the nonprofit Walk With Sally which nurtures children of parents or siblings with cancer.
Adia, LLC provides in-home non-medical care tailored to the lifestyles and needs of individual elderly persons, enabling them to remain in their homes. In December 2010, Adia created a singing event, Adia Sings!, and enthusiastically sponsored the children’s YES CLUB in their request to bring Christmas cheer to Adia clients in their home. The YES Club, a group of young Elpis students, is made up of students from a variety of local schools in the South Bay. On Saturday, December 18, 2010, Adia Sings and the YES Club joined forces! The children went from private house to private house in Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, where homebound seniors, clients of Adia, live and sang favorite carols and gave out hand-made friendship bracelets.
YES stands for Young Elpis Students. Elpis is the Greek God of Hope. Their motto is “yes, students make a difference." The group began last year by two sisters, Nathalie Sung, a 7th grader at Adams Middle School and her sister Danielle, a 5th grader at Meadows Elementary School. It seems that when the girls observed an elderly family friend crying after setting the holiday table and having no one show up, they determined to step up to the plate and do what they could to save the elderly from loneliness. “We want to make a difference,” said the sisters. The membership comes from Manhattan Beach Middle School, Adams Middle School, and Meadows Elementary school, with new chapters to start up in the future. With the help of the Sung sister’s mother, “YES chose ADIA” said Tulika Bose, Adia’s Community Outreach Coordinator. Additionally, the YES Club reached out to the South Bay Children’s Chorus, sponsored by El Camino College, to join them in singing.
“ADIA chose YES too! – it was a perfect match bridging two generations together. Selecting a group of kids to visit our elderly clients and their families was a very important decision. We protect our clients and their privacy at all times…,” said Pamela Penson, Co-Founder of Adia. A bus met at Meadows Elementary School in Manhattan Beach, at 9am and off they went from one house to another. “Oh, what a wonderful gift for me,” said one ADIA client, and another, and another. That was just as Pamela Penson, co-founder of Adia and Chief of Outrageous Service, hoped. “The simple gift of song CAN reverse the feeling of loneliness. Often times, loneliness is common for some at the holidays. Adia Sings! brought a smile to both the children singing and to the elderly listening,” said Penson.
Karen Russo can be reached at kkrusso@aol.com