Priceless performance
<p>Lavina Jacobsen, a resident at Coeur d'Alene Homes, speaks with Hayden Meadows fifth-grader Lauren St. Denny on Thursday after students performed as the senior living facility.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Harmonies, buoyant rhythms, children's voices and sunshine flowed through the dining room Thursday at Coeur d'Alene Homes Assisted Living and Memory Center.
And the people smiled. The cost: Priceless.
But it all started with a dollar, one of 800 single dollar bills the local nonprofit mailed out in November with instructions to use each bill to change someone's life, and send back a story about it.
"That's the best dollar I ever spent," said Tom Cronin.
Because of Cronin's expenditure, students in Hayden Meadows Elementary School's special chorus intermittently snapped fingers, clapped hands and stomped feet as their lilting voices sailed through the room at the assisted living center.
"I thought they were very good," said resident Pat Sanborn.
After leaving the dollar sitting on his counter for months, Cronin bought 35 sheets of paper and five pencils. He gave the writing supplies, along with the names of 35 residents at Coeur d'Alene Homes, to the elementary school singing group.
Cronin also presented the young singers with a challenge: Each of them should write a letter to one of the residents, and then perform for them.
"It's amazing how one dollar can touch 35 residents' lives," said Ann Johnson, director of development and marketing at Coeur d'Alene Homes. "The way it's connected them with these kids is so wonderful."
The real smiles came after the performance, when the fourth- and fifth-grade students were matched up with the residents they had written to.
"It was awesome," said 11-year-old Audrey Wilson. "I love meeting new people, and retirement homes are the best. I would like to work here when I grow up."
Harrison Krohne, 11, said he enjoyed the experience, and that the sunny weather made it even better.
Since November, more than 100 people have responded to the residence home's request for stories about how the dollars were used.
Many ended up in church collection baskets or were given to food banks and other charities.
One of the dollar bills grew into a $52 donation to a nonprofit that helps educate children in Pakistan and Afghanistan, another helped buy a case of green beans and another purchased milk for a family living in a homeless shelter.
"It's pretty amazing," Johnson said.