LE SUEUR — Jim Plonske spent a lot of hours at what was then the Le Sueur Nursing Home when his mother and then his sister lived there before they died in 2008 and 2018, respectively.
“I just used to walk down the halls to visit my sister or my mom. One time there was an employee playing the piano, and it just like filled the halls a bit. And I thought that was beautiful, not only for the residents but the workers, the visitors and everybody,” Plonske said.
He said he came up with the idea for a player piano to help fill the halls with music, even when nobody was available to play.
Friday his dream came true as Greg Gavin of Gavin Piano Services of White Bear Lake delivered the baby grand that now sits in the main activities room at Cura of Le Sueur Nursing Home.
Before you start visualizing the player pianos that appeared in dusty saloons in Western movies, think again.
The Young Chang piano sits against one wall, its immaculate ivory-colored keyboard joined by a pullout drawer from which you control the electronics. Or, as Gavin did, it can be operated through an app on a cellphone. The polished wood case gives it a concert hall shine that is already drawing lots of attention.
Although Plonske referred to it as “basic” when Gavin starting listing additional features that are available, the 17,000-song catalog that comes with it could hardly be called basic. It has built-in humidity controls to assure optimal quality — which is good in nursing homes, where winter thermostats remain high — it can be played like a regular piano and can even be enhanced with a monitor to become karaoke central.
The $20,000-plus piano was several years in the purchasing. Plonske, who with his wife, Tess, operates The 300 Club bowling center in Le Sueur, focused funds raised through charitable gambling toward the purchase. He gave to his traditional causes like the Giant Celebration as well.
“Basically, we did a lot of meat raffles, that helped out. And just the charitable gambling through the e-tabs and pull tabs and stuff,” Plonske said of the fundraising efforts.
This sort of focused giving is seen often by Community Charities of MN, which oversees legal charitable gambling at bowling centers and bars/breweries across the state, said Miranda Quandt, gambling manager. They don’t tell owners where to give their funds, but can help them raise money toward their nonprofit of choice.
People were immediately finding their way to the new piano.
“This will stay here,” said Brandy Johnson, business office manager at Cura who dropped in to refresh herself on manual operations. “This is the hub of activities. So, this is where we have all of our activity events, our music. We’ll have parties in here for the holidays. We’ll have resident birthday parties in here.”
Cura currently has 26 short- and long-term residents, with a maximum capacity of 50, Johnson said. She already has plans for a happy hour to introduce residents to the piano. While they figure out if more than one phone can be synched with it, she operated it manually.
“They have been so excited,” Johnson said of residents. “I’ve been bragging about it for a long time.”
As they explore what songs their complimentary catalog includes, Plonske thought about theme-night possibilities.
“Maybe they could have a swing night where there’s nothing but swing music,” he said. “And for Christmas, of course, around Christmastime you can listen to holiday cheer. They can do a bunch of different themes for the music lovers here.”
In addition, Johnson said they will continue to bring in performers who provide music styles residents grew up with in an interactive format.