Reported by Cassie Tammy Wang
Veteran’s Day 2019 will be on Monday, November 11th, just around the corner. Once again, Greater Princeton AYLUS (GPA) came to perform for the hundreds of veterans and their families at the New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home, sponsored by the United States Veterans Affairs Department (Location: 132 Evergreen Road, Edison, NJ 08837).
Rebuilt in 1999 on 109-acres in Middlesex County, the facility is the most modern, state-of-the-art nursing home in the United States. The 312-bed facility features a “town square” core with resident living areas located around the perimeter. The home is next to Roosevelt Hospital and is easily accessible from Route 1 and Route 287, the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.
On Saturday, November 2, 2019, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm, 32 GPA members spent 4 hours hosting its second “Music from the Heart” performance at this facility. Hundreds of veterans and their family members attended the performance.
Prior to the performance, GPA President Cassie Tammy Wang, together with West Windsor Council Vice-President, Dr. Yingchao “YZ” Zhang, gave a brief speech to thank everyone for attending, volunteering, and performing to salute veterans. Dr. Zhang attended this GPA students organized community service event to support students. In addition, Dr. Zhang gave a one-man band performance of a beautiful song “Heart of Gold” to start the program!
The program was put together elaborately to salute the veterans by playing music of “The Two Grenadiers”, “Farewell”, “Tonight, One Hand One Heart”, and poem recitation “Veterans Day Limerick”! Everyone appreciated the performance and enjoyed it very much. Apparently, GPA members brought lots of joy to the seniors! Everyone was so impressed by the professional performance and strongly encouraged talented GPA members to return and perform again. After the performance, GPA members spent additional warm moments with the Veterans and their families.
Participants (3 hours for all): Yingchao Zhang, Xiangcheng Samuel Ying, Joyce Li, Sophia Wang, Kathy Yang, Anna Zhang, Ivy Lin, Elizabeth Grace Zhang, Alice Jiang, Eva Nilsson, Sophia Wei, Angelina Yingying Liu, Yugong Ismay Wang, Pengyue Gao, Julie Wang, Sky Tianyi Han, Amy Lin, Alisa Zihui Xiao, Fengqi Wen, Xinyi Christine Zhang, Kevin Liu, Claire Huang, Elizabeth Yunjue Li, Lan Cheng, Laura Wu, Nicole Liu, Daniel Ju, and Cassie Tammy Wang.
