http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf0k8sACrTU

When recreation coordinator Sarah Urquhart came up with the idea of having residents of The Waverley Mansion dance and lip-synch to Call Me Maybe, the pop song by Carly Rae Jepsen, she had no idea that the resulting video would put this London, ON, retirement residence on the map.

After being posted on YouTube the video went viral, with more than 850,000 views and comments from around the world. A second video with the song Gangnam Style, by Psy, is climbing steadily towards 50,000 views.

Urquhart says the idea came to her as a way to stay creative and develop new activities for the residents. “I’d done them with my friends and I thought that doing it with seniors would be fun.”

There was a learning curve to overcome. Many of the residents didn’t know what YouTube was, with one asking Urquhart what television channel it was on. None of them had ever heard of Call Me Maybe or Gangnam Style.

Call Me Maybe took about twelve hours to put together. Urquhart was the director, camera operator and editor. She also had to teach the words of the song to the residents so that they could lip-synch them.

As Call Me Maybe became more popular, more residents wanted to participate in subsequent videos. Some, Urquhart said, were even secretly practicing their “moves”. It’s become “a much more involved process, between the first video and now our fourth one.” They are currently working on a Valentine’s Day video.

Other than those initial questions from the residents, such as how to turn on the internet, Urquhart said there were no real challenges

This is “just the best little program we’ve come up with. It’s accessible to everybody. Everybody who wants to participate can participate. It’s truly become that play with a purpose program.”

There have been a number of positive outcomes for the participating residents. “It’s become quite a fellowship here,” she says. “Their cognitive skills are enhanced and their physical skills are enhanced. Everything has been really positive.”

Initially, Urquhart posted the video on YouTube so that family and friends of the residents, especially grandchildren, could watch and then “it just exploded”. The videos caught the attention of the local, national and international media and were featured as a good news story. Hundreds of people have posted comments about how happy it makes them to see residents so engaged and have expressed their desire to be involved in similar activities when they are seniors.

When asked why she thinks the videos have been so popular, Urquhart said “it’s really brought a personal touch to people. The responses we’ve gotten on YouTube, in the mail, from people calling in, it’s brightened our day. You can tell that everybody [in the video] is just enjoying life.”

You can visit the Waverley Mansion YouTube channel here.