Carolers needed to bring holiday cheer to patients

LONG BRANCH - A local caroling group is seeking adult volunteers to sing carols at Monmouth Medical Center on Dec. 13 and at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune on Dec. 11.

Both caroling events will begin at 6 p.m. A good singing voice is not a prerequisite to participate in the festivities, according to the group's founder, Mike Ellis.

According to Ellis, the carolers will be lead through the floors and departments at each hospital to sing holiday songs to hospital patients for a two-hour period.

The group has approximately 25 songs to choose from and will be accompanied by two guitar players, Ellis said in a press release.

"We sing while marching through the halls, at nursing stations and outside and sometimes inside the patents' rooms," Ellis said. "We take requests from the nurses, patients and their guests."

The most popular destination at the hospitals are the pediatric wings, he said.

The current group was inspired in the mid-1970s when Ellis sang with a group of coworkers that went to a few nursing homes.

A few years later in 1981, Ellis started the local caroling group with a group of 14-18 people who went to several hospitals and some nursing homes.

In 1988, the group disbanded and in 1993 Ellis placed an ad in local newspapers seeking volunteers to start it up again.

"I was able to obtain singing dates for Monmouth Medical, Jersey Shore and Riverview [Medical Center] since 1993," Ellis said.

In recent years, depending on the date and the hospital, Ellis said the group averages from 12-30 adult carolers.

The group is not associated with any church or organization, Ellis added.

For more information or to volunteer to sing, call Ellis at (732) 870-1893.