You Must Remember This, Inc. (YMRT) works exclusively for charitable purposes. Specifically, YMRT is dedicated to providing seasoned professional entertainers, on a continuing basis, to residential facilities (especially nursing homes which serve low-income elderly), and to non-custodial programs which support the physically, emotionally or mentally challenged who reside in such facilities. YMRT operates exclusively for charitable purposes and is chartered as a private not-for-profit organization under Federal guidelines.
Recent cuts in federal and state expenditures, and support for the arts in general, and focusing on programming for the elderly in particular, have exacerbated the long-standing crisis, which nursing homes face - there is rarely enough money in the budget for anything beyond the basics of good custodial care.
But You Must Remember This believes that in order to survive, the human spirit requires the additional nourishment of music, laughter, friendship and joy. Each of us craves connection with the wider world. Everyone, regardless of age or incapacity, needs to be invited to the party.
You Must Remember This sends entertainers into selected facilities, at least once a month to provide this linkage to those unable to seek it outside their current environment. Each performance will last approximately one hour. Under the supervision of each residence's director, entertainers will bring music, gentle humor, and fun to those institutions, which are struggling to make ends meet.
Each performer chosen for affiliation with the foundation will be required to have at least ten years' professional experience. The most crucial qualifications for inclusion, however, will be, is a demonstrated capacity for relaxed empathy, the ability to interact with each audience member, and a dedication to the founding principles of the organization. Performers engage directly with their audiences, and learn 'favorite songs' and bits of personal history from residences and staff. Over time, relationships are have been formed, and nurtured. The expectation of next month's 'return engagement' provides performers and residents alike with an incentive to retrieve from storage love songs, jokes, and memories.
These are not intended, however, to be exercises in nostalgia. They are, rather, meant to provide otherwise relatively isolated populations with the rare opportunity to participate once again in the ongoing business of the world. T -the continuing laughter and foolishness of life.…. To be granted, once again, the dignity and status of full adulthood.
You Must Remember This believes that a society can be judged by the way it treats its frail elderly. We believe that providing the basics of care and protection are crucial. But as important, and as telling, is the amount of energy devoted to the idea that each of us remains indelibly human, across time and memory.
You Must Remember This proposes to do work of immediate value. In full hope that it might also serve a teaching purpose: to demonstrate how simple and how essential is the enduring pleasure of each other's company
Note: We currently service four South Shore locations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with our performers at least once a month :
· The Harbor House in Hingham, MA
· The Mildred Alfred House in North Abington, MA
· The Sachem Nursing Home in East Bridgewater, MA and
· The South Shore Nursing Facility in Rockland, MA
Please help us continue to bring friendship and laughter to these facilities and hundreds of other locations here in Massachusetts by making a donation, no matter how small……It will help us to continue to bring happiness to our friends.
Thank you-In love and laughter,
Paul Wayne, Founder

"Ministers of Memory Since 1938"