MERIDIAN TOWNSHIP - Jamie Merritt, a music therapist who works for the MSU Community Music School explained how music can help the well being of older adults in Meridian Township.

"I go into a variety of nursing homes and facilities like that and do groups with music therapy and we work on memory recall and self expression. A lot of times music will let some peoples guard drop, so they are comfortable with it and you get unique out comes from that".

"I go into this facilities a couple years ago and i commonly go there and i was doing Christmas music and instead of doing your run of the mill holiday music, I decided to throw in "Hava Negila" trying to be a little more diverse and I had this gentleman that always sat in the back with his blanket up and he never really interacted through music. He would say hi and that was about it. He threw his blanket off and stood up and started clapping his hands along and singing the words to the song. It was the most that that facility had seen out of him in a very long time.

"For individuals tat may not have dementia, music can still take them to a time and place. It can still invoke memories and emotions that they may have not thought about in a long time. So its kind of unique. Its a really good quality of life".

"When the staff says wow you have not idea but Joe over here hasn't sang anything or said anything in a long time was singing along with you when you were doing "You Are My Sunshine", how could you not feel good when you leave a job like that."