Recycled CDs bring joy to nursing home residents

Special to Leader-Press 

From Boggie Woogie Bugle Boy to I Will Survive, music from 1940 to the year 2000 made up the compact disc wind chimes that Senor Ms. Five Hills Dawn Hale created for nursing home residents.  

“As I thought about the residents laying in their beds and looking up at blank ceilings, I imagined how sweet it would be for them to be able to lay down and look up and see the beautiful artwork from our titleholders,” Hale said. 

Hale and Miss Five Hills Jazmine Hendricks, whose platform of service is recycling, decided to jointly take on the project and asked the royalty to create their own wind chimes from recycled CDs to brighten the rooms of nursing home residents. 

“My idea was to do a record theme since we had some old CDs that look like 45s and we used an old vinyl album for the top,” Hale said. “The residents looking up at this will think of a song that they enjoy from their past. It will bring back some great memories.”

Hendricks used scrapbook paper and mod podge, an adhesive that is also a sealant. She used ribbon and colored string to hang the CDs. 

“I wanted use something I already had available and that wouldn’t require me to free-hand a design like painting the CDs would,” Hendricks said. “My biggest challenge was figuring out how to actually assemble the wind chimes. Although I had a few hiccups, knowing they will make someone’s day a little brighter is a greater reward than any challenges I may have faced.”

Five Hills Ambassador Kaydence Roberts used CDs, yarn, Siri markers and stencils for her wind chime. 

“It was difficult to figure out how to put the CDs on the string so they wouldn’t fall,” Roberts said. “It is great to know that this will help decorate one of the rooms at the nursing home.”

Little Miss Five Hills Avery Brown chose to paint her CDs in her favorite colors and cut shapes from glitter paper. 

“It was hard cutting out the hearts and gluing them on after having to be patient waiting for the paint to dry,” Brown said. “I was excited to finish it because I want people to feel better and think it’s pretty.”

The parents of Baby Mister Five Hills Nakoa Ramirez painted the bottoms of his feet and hands to create a beach scene with his hand creating a jellyfish and his foot creating a footprint in the sand. The used a painted metal coffee can as the base.

Little Mister Five Hills Jordan Hendrix, Jr. painted his CDs to create a custom masterpiece.

Five Hills Junior Ambassador Hayley Sawyer cut out moons and stars from her CDs being careful not to crack the discs. 

“Even though you can’t always see the moon and stars, they are always there,” Sawyer said. “I hope when the nursing home residents see my wind chime, they know they are never alone.”

The CD wind chimes will be donated to residents at the Copperas Cove Nursing and Rehabw Center.