Meet Matt Ricketts and Katy Martin, Our Featured Volunteers from San Francisco!
Get to know our volunteers!
Do you volunteer at a specific hospital? SF VA Hospital
How long have you been volunteering with Musicians On Call? Matt ~ 1 yr; Katy about 6 months
Are you a volunteer guide or musician? Musician
What is your favorite song to play for patients? Train Song
Have you ever been part of an impromptu jam session with patients or family in a hospital room? yes!
Do you perform anywhere else besides with MOC? Yes. We gig together as a duo and also have an album out.
What is your occupation outside of MOC? Matt – financial advisor; Katy – musician and artist
Do you have any hidden talents? Matt is an excellent dancer and mixes a mean cocktail. Katy paints and knows her way around a sewing machine.
What is your story? What connects you with music and why do you volunteer with MOC? We volunteer with MOC because it feels really powerful and vital (and it’s fun!). It seems like the music is able to cut through whatever stress or pain or loneliness the patients are experiencing, and it feels like such a gift to be able to do that for them, even for a minute.
What makes MOC different from your other volunteer experiences? The reactions from the patients seem much more immediate and profound than we’ve experienced with other volunteer experiences. So often we’ve had a patient become tearful, or one who initially didn’t want to hear a song will wander into the hall to listen once they hear us start to play for the next room. It feels like we have a few brushes with magic every time we play.
Has your life changed because of your experience with MOC? Playing for MOC has made us better performers, and keeps reminding us over and over why we play music in the first place.
What is your favorite #MOCmoment? There are so many! One favorite moment was playing for a gentleman who stopped us in the hallway to play for him. As soon as we started playing, his eyes filled with tears, and you could tell from the look on his face that he was surprised by the intensity of his own reaction. It was a really powerful moment.