231339
232189
Kelowna  

Kelowna singer-songwriters ask frontline workers to send selfies

The faces of our heroes

Kelowna husband and wife singing duo Kim and Jim Rhindress are asking those working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis to send in a selfie for their latest music video.

The couple has just written the song Health Care Heroes, dedicated to health care workers, first responders or hospital support staff.

"We wanted to contribute in the only way that we could really think, which is to honour these people," says Kim. "We really kind of take them from granted most of the time, unless we have ourselves personally or someone we love is in hospital." 

They're hoping to receive 300 selfies from health care workers in the next couple of days, which will be used by Okanagan filmmaker CJ Clayton in the tribute video he's creating this week free of charge. 

"I’s a big ask to get 300 photos," says Kim. 

"It doesn’t sound like a big number compared to all the workers out there, but to get people to even know about it, and then to stop what they’re doing and take a photo ... it seems like such a trivial thing, but putting faces to this is so important because these aren’t statistics, these are human beings. We’re getting photos in from Berlin, from Nunavut, from South America - this isn’t just a Kelowna thing, we’re getting pictures from everywhere."

They also posted on Facebook asking for photos of hearts in windows, visual displays of the words "thank you" and any other visual shows of gratitude or support.  

The Rhindresses had a few inspirations behind the project, but the biggest was a personal connection to the cause.

Their oldest son based in Victoria experienced COVID-19 himself recently, and the couple also know many people working in the industry, including doctors, nurses and support staff. 

"I’m friends with a lot of people who are really on the frontlines, like people don’t know what’s really going on," says Jim, who worked as a surgical nurse at KGH for 17 years. 

"It’s heavy there. They’re working harder than ever."

A rough cut of the song was posted to YouTube on Sunday and the final version will be recorded in studio on Thursday. 

If you're a healthcare worker who would like to participate in the project, email your selfie to Kim at [email protected]



More Kelowna News

229439
233370
RECENT STORIES
Castanet Classifieds

227287


230329


228921
232116


Kamloops SPCA Featured Pet

Mula
Mula Kamloops SPCA >




218881


Recent Trending
Castanet Proud Member of RTNDA Canada
225779