My ‘Feel Good’ Story of the Week

Last night ‘The Holeproofs’ played a charity gig for the ‘Holiday Explorers’ which is an organisation that provides holiday experiences for people with intellectual disabilities from age 16+.

The audience were all dressed up for their ‘Winter Wonderland’ theme and consisted of 80% people with disabilities and 20% were carers and families.

The crowd hit the dance floor from the first beat of the first song and they certainly danced like no-one was watching . We witnessed some of the most flamboyant and energetic dance moves imaginable. Everyone had a rip roaring time and included people running
back and forth across the stage, people bouncing up and down, and some pointing out their favourite band member and shouting out chorus lines.

I then spotted a lady who must be in her late 60’s now walking across the dance floor that I
recognised. It was a lady called ‘Carliene’ who used to play in the intellectually disabled basketball
team that I coached over 20 years ago. She was walking around by herself so I decided that at the end of the set I would find her and see if she had forgotten me. When I approached her it took her all of 3 seconds to remember who I was and was greeted with a huge hug and some excited jumbled words. Carliene’s speech is quite difficult to decipher and I realized it was coaching her that taught me about reading body language and finding other ways to communicate.

Carliene was so excited to see me and then grabbed my hand and turned it over to see if I was
wearing a wedding ring. It was really cute as she shook her head and looked disappointed as she
thought I may have been still single…lol.

20 years ago, Carliene was extremely affectionate, but did have a feisty side. With no warning whatsoever she would yell at
me at the top of her voice and then proceed to
throw her handbag at me. On one occasion she belted me in the head with a 2 litre plastic coke bottle, but I probably deserved it

So anyway, back to the gig. Carliene then held my hand and raced around the room to introduce me
to her carers and friends. During set 2 she stood at the front of the stage playing our tambourine and
dancing to every song. The other band members were clearly jealous that I had my own ‘groupie’ and
were shocked when Carliene would try and shoo them aside so she could have a clear view of the drums…..lol (quite clearly this had never happened before!)

To see the positive impact our music had on everyone was incredible, and was a reminder that “Music really does make the world go round”